Opportunity knocking
Where are the giant gold discoveries - going...going...gone?
Giant gold discoveries are needed to help replace declining older resources, but they are few and far between.
Author: Marc Davis
Posted:Tuesday,20 Oct 2009
VANCOUVER, BC (BNW Newswire)
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Fulp runs the mining investment newsletter www.mercenarygeologist.com."Geologists are running out of virgin geological terrain that isprospective for the discovery of giant outcropping ore bodies," hesays. "Much of the earth has already been trod many times byexploration geologists."
Fulp adds that the gold exploration sector is now being forced toventure into some of the world's last geological frontiers - oftenemerging democracies that are typically fraught with geopolitical risk.
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Another impediment to ramping up the world's below-ground goldsupplies is the fact that there are normally long developmentaltimelines involved in building large new mines. Moreover, capital costsrelated to building and operating mines have gone up exponentially inrecent years, Kaiser adds.
Additionally, with gold prices repeatedly hitting all-time highsover the past couple of years, most investors want to see miningjuniors "proving up ounces in the ground" sooner rather than later,Kaiser says. That is why the junior mining sector has mostly focused onupgrading established deposits during the last few years, rather thantaking the much longer route of methodically advancing grass rootsdiscoveries.
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Meanwhile, some other industry commentators point to the fact thatmajor gold mining companies are continually struggling to replacemined-out reserves. Especially their high-grade ore, much of which wasseverely depleted when gold was fetching much lower prices.
Consider the fact that the world's top trio of producers (BarrickGold, Anglogold Ashanti and Newmont Mining), alone, each generatebetween 5 to 8 million ounces of gold per annum. That means that atleast one new multi-million ounce deposit needs to come on-stream everyyear just to replace this output. This isn't happening.
Moreover, the advent of $1,000-plus gold prices still won't speed up3-7 year mine developmental timelines - ones that invariably involvetime-consuming regulatory hurdles. Such a scenario will no doubt helpto underpin high-flying gold prices for the foreseeable future. Andthat's good news for companies like Exeter Resource, which will seetheir much-envied monster gold assets become even more valuable
full article:
https://www.mineweb.co.za/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=91043&sn=Detail