Hi pickem, no, there aren't any stupid questions on this board. All questions reflect a need to understand a mining business that many times is difficult to understand because of investor non-familiarity of background assumptions made by exploration and mining companies and because of geological strata complexities, much of which the exploration company itself is learning with the rest of us. So, hang in there and read as much about the business as you can via the internet, the library or bookstores.

On this Phoenix Project, Rubicon Minerals, from an existing historic McFinley Project vertical shaft that was sunk years ago to about 400 feet below surface, has constructed several drill stations underground 150 meters below surface. These drill stations are separated from one another on an existing level (a horizontal working, a hollowed-out compartment), away from the shaft) yet near the shaft, so designed as to shorten the drilling time and expense of deeper angled drilling (not horizontal drilling as most of the gold is below that working level) to intercept gold mineralization with several fan-like vertical arcs of drill holes over a range of azmuths (directions).

Its a three-dimensional program to identify large blocks of gold-mineralized rock that probably will be the subject of other drilling programs from even greater depth (some horizontal, some angled up, many angled down) once the shaft is deepened to 350 meters and an adit or horizontal tunnel is driven from the shaft area towards the F2 zone to allow additional (earlier) RBY-advised drilling and bulk sampling of that gold mineralization. ok?

Thanks for your question.

an old miner