In a sense Simon Hughes and I were among the Dalradian pioneers in this respect as we sunk an open stope on one of the Calliachar Burn veins over about 5 weeks in the autumn of 1990, managing to reach some 5.5 metres below rock-head before the continual rain/snow started making life difficult as the winter came in. We only used hand-tools in order to be selective, taking out slices of the vein then jack-hammering enough footwall out in order to have working space for the next slice. 6.5 tonnes @ 157 g/t Au was the take, trucked down to South Crofty for cyanidation and refining before being sold by Edinburgh jewellers. Had the gold all been free-milling, the overheads would have been a lot less, but these high-sulphidation ores with lots of 10-20 micron gold are never fun to play with!
It was an interesting few weeks, one of the enduring memories being sat around the fire (old bits of core-box in a big galvanised bucket, encouraged by compressed air fed in via a conveniently-punched hole) after finishing for the day, with night gathering fast and stags roaring in the darkness, no more than a hundred metres away or so. They got used to us being there every day and would often approach quite closely.
Was this Scotland's first producing hard-rock gold mine?? The answer to that, I still think, will never be known! The sands of time conceal many things.