geo-politics are becoming more important By geo-political risks, we don't mean whether someone launches a missile. We are referring to the risk of a sovereign state taking your stuff. Whether these government grabs are warranted due to improper behaviors on the part of gold mining companies is a mute point. The required rates of return (hurdle) for new projects are mooning. This will diminish the scale and scope of new projects. Miners will prefer to build projects in stages and only grow operations when they have extracted some cash flows. Mega projects are a thing of the past. Gold mining output will be constrained.