Hello towie It is not a negative post it is a Question you...

Hello towie
It is not a negative post it is a Question you should be asking .
I am a miner with 40 years experience .I know the mine and I know what the current guys that are doing the mining are like .
Rails would have given you and easy why to transport the dirt out .
Once you get off the level you need to get the dirt out of the stopes if they are below say 55 degrees .So what angle does the stope go up at If it is above 55 degrees the miners can work off the broken dirt which then poses another problem .
The dirt has to stay there until they get up far enough to start taking some .
These are all simple questions.
Yes you may have rich veins of gold But you need to mine it and 20,000 tonne is a fair bit of dirt .
And for your information I did the mining there well be before NTL came along .