Thanks for the excellent report from the field. Sounds like quite an interesting trip. I was waiting for the second part to reply, but couldn't restrain myself.

A couple of thoughts/observations:

Looking at Google maps (yeah, I do that a lot), in terrain mode it seems that the terrain becomes pretty steep after the pavement ends, which is just after Ridge Road ends. The company description of the property being on Ridge Road puts it in the more level areas.

The purchase of this property might (will?) provide a place to put the processed (spent) tailings. (What's been refered to as "tailings" is actually ore that has never been processed. It's only tailings if it's waste material or has already had all the economically recoverable components removed.) I hadn't previously thought about what would happen to all that waste rock, but whatever is done with it will probably be easier to do than it would be in Melba. Which also reminds me- they're going to have to move all that rock out of Melba and back up the road to the new mill site.