Mining Needs Exploration;Kitco News) - If you’re looking for some magical white knight to appear out of the blue and help out the gold mining sector, you’re going to be waiting a while, according to one mining executive. Mark Bristow, chief executive officer of Randgold Resources Ltd.’s (LSE:RRS)(NASDAQ:GOLD), doesn’t believe the questions facing the sector will simply be answered with a rise in gold prices. Speaking with Kitco News at BMO’s Metals +& Mining Conference in Florida, Bristow stressed the need, and importance, exploration has on the industry. Randgold's Mark Bristow & Kitco News' Daniela Cambone “The reason it’s in trouble is because it hasn’t replaced what it’s mined and it’s used the higher gold price to increase its reserves and thereby force the quality of the reserves further and further down,” Bristow said. “Now it’s stuck because the gold price has come back (down). “Mining is like pharmaceutical companies – we’re a consumptive industry, we mine away our asset,” he added. “If you don’t replace it, you run out of business. “What’s aggravated it is the gold price went up and allowed the industry to replace it with inferior quality reserves, and now with the costs and the revenue lines sort of closing, it’s stuck again.” Bristow added that while the gold mining sector isn’t always the quickest to adapt to new issues, he does think that it’s taking steps in the right direction. “The gold industry always takes longer to work out that it has to do something because everyone hopes that some magical force will solve its problems,” he said. “And we’ve seen this many times in the cycles. But I think there’s less margin for error suddenly…people are starting to wake up to the real issues and at least they’re talking about it – that’s the first step.” https://www.stockhouse.com/companies/bullboard/v.pex/pacific-ridge-exploration-ltd?replyto=0&source=bullboard