I figure they could get an area flat enough for it

I figure they could get an area flat enough for it to start , by knocking the barnicles off with TRex and the dozers. After that one of those terrain levelers will turn anything in their path to gravel, so you can push it out of the way with the dozers. That hardpan they are digging in, with Rex would be like soda crackers to a Vermeer Commander or RockHawg. If I win the lottery, I'm going to buy one and ship it to the mine at no charge just to prove to Bob that it can be used there. I've been looking at a bunch of articles and videos for Australian iron mines, and you can't tell the difference between the mines over there and Guataloupe. Mostly hilly just like the Baja. One of these machines will certainly be on the buy list if the big vein  ends up being several hundred yards wide.. It would take a million years to break it apart with the small hydraulic hammers. Plus a surface miner would probably extend the lives of your crushers, dozers and excavators by many years.. But who knows.. I was wrong once, back in '83 LOL!  Have a great weekend all..

Oh by the way.. I emailed that Aussie Mex mining company a couple times and asked about the suspension of permits thing. I think maybe they got theirs suspended, and thought it was country wide.. LOL! No answer back in 33 hours.. I asked Bob for a comment, and he said they hadn't heard anything. He seems to think it would be fairly important news if it was true, and would have been all over the news and internet. So it looks like more sb BS..  Later..