I'm certainly no expert, either, but I'll sum up my layman's knowledge of it:
1) A lot of this ore was test mined from the Stump property in the Yukon. Yukon exploration licences allow for test mining up to 100 tons without going through the mine permitting process. This means that They can't actually mine more than this without going through a lot more paperwork (YESSA/YESAB).
2) The ore was trucked down to the old concentrator mill in Sandon, B.C. via private contractor trucking.
3) Silvana Mine concentrator mill, which had sat unused for a decade, was re-commissioned, re-licenced, and put into operation.
4) Some of the ore also came from remaining sources at the Silvana Mine. While the mine is essentially played out, there is almost always a little bit more left somewhere. In this case, areas that were only considered marginally economical so they were bypassed in earlier mining, and are still only marginally economical.
5) The concentrator essentially separates a lot of the non-economical rock from the economical ore, and produces concentrates which can then be smelted.
6) A forward sales contract for the concentrates produced by the concentrator was worked out with the COMINCO smelter nearby in Trail, B.C. Unfortunately this contract was at lower silver, lead, and zinc prices than we currently have.
7) The concentrates were trucked via a trucking company to the Teck COMINCO smelter.
What the company does have:
A good, operating (although small) fully licensed concentrator (there's a lot of companies out there that would kill to have this), and large land package in a historically very profitable mining camp. It is very likely, given the fact that most of the exploration in the Slocan Camp area was done 100 years ago, and that mining usually started with exposed mineralization back then, that some very economical deposits were missed. So far, the company has not found any. It is also reasonably likely that if they keep poking around the old mines they will find something economical that was missed.
All they need to find is the ore. Unlike other companies that are struggling to find the money to build a mine, they have the mine(s) but not the ore.
They have some very promising properties at an early stage of development in the Yukon. But none of the infrastructure they have in B.C.
All of these properties are years away from a mining permit, as far as I know.
