Yeah, I think you could do this project for tens of millions and have a 20% chance of finding it intact, and you could argue those numbers are conservative. All

Yeah, I think you could do this project for tens of millions and have a 20% chance of finding it intact, and you could argue those numbers are conservative. All assuming everything is as described in the article. Here's an account [0] of a single diamond mine that processes 60,000 tons of material every day, of which 10,000 tons is ore that needs to be examined closely enough to find diamonds. The article talks about excavating a 250m x 250m x 15m volume, approximately 1 million tons. Even if all of that is potential "ore" - which I doubt - that's a hundred days for the diamond mine. The diamond miners have different economies of scale and different environmental concerns, but I think it's a good starting point. [0] https://www.businessinsider.com/diamond-mine-siberia-russia-alrosa-photos?r=US&IR=T#each-excavator-bucket-holds-about-30-tonnes-more-than-66000-pounds-of-soil-or-ore-19 https://www.businessinsider.com/diamond-mine-siberia-russia-...