From the eagle view Brock 105 it looks like they are defiantly mining what we can only presume is probably gold, gold and copper or just copper.
I dont know how many artisan miners went in for straight copper plays I think like here more little guys look for gold (For obvious reasons) than anything else.
As to why such a rich gold bearing country as Chile has been so under explored and underexploited (for gold) to date considering the nationwide potential, well you would have to understand their history, economy and politics in detail.
But unlike the Australian gold fields which have been thoroughly explored by little and big players many times over in most cases the Chilean gold fields seem to still have vast swathes of country that have only even really been exploited by very small players using very limited technology and equipment. One or two man shows digging holes and making enough to get by..no doubt always hoping for that El Dorado.
We have plenty of those little guys here in Australia too but nearly all the most prospective land in Oz has had some proper high tech exploration as well as the old timers picking around.
Perhaps the Tanami and Arnem Land might be a couple of the last bastions in Australia that are under explored. But they are very isolated and have complex native title issues to resolve usually.
The belt we have gone out and mass pegged in Chile is 10km from the coast and a major highway! Its kinda bizarre the majors have been so slow.
It really is astounding that we managed to do what we have done. If we find repetitions of Ternera over some of these newly acquired leases (which is obviously what we are hoping to do) it will be even more mind blowing.
I sometimes feel this will be a lot more than your normal mining play here, we may be part of something that goes down in Aussie mining folklore.
If TSO finds repetitions of Ternera over the new leases that will certainly be the case.
