I think I've always been aware that pre-mined is incorrect, but I didn't realise how emotive a term in was, perhaps with legitimate reasons. What strikes me now that all the alternative prefixes to mine don't really escape the problem: they are all verb or verb-like. Could I suggest early whales, or even The April Whales, as a better reference? What is interesting is not how they became whales, but how they have acted since, and IMHO @berniesanders is way in credit. @dan is not.