You are correct....if it was a gossan (which it isn't), an early prospector would have dug an exploration pit or shallow shaft into it. Those old timers may not have had the luxury of Acme on-line geo classes, but they were pretty good at recognizing things like gossans.
JB wants it both ways - he bragged about discovery of a gossan (which is an easily recognized feature), yet in the same NRs and interviews, he talked about 10,000-years of prospectors missing it.
Interesting that he no longer talks about gossans.
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