Gold Fields CEO . BTR has the goods Year-to-date the Van Eck Gold Miners index is down 14%. Gold Fields is off 9%.
Griffith said the precious metal sector is approaching a shortfall, and Gold Fields should get ahead of it. "[It] is a relatively good time before the competition for assets really, really hots up. We are stealing a march on a number of our competitors out there," said Griffith.
Over the past five years, Griffith warned that the return on exploration dollars has been "rapidly diminishing." "We are not seeing a return for those expiration dollars. What we are seeing is a reduction in the return for those exploration dollars," said Griffith. "Where we are seeing the discoveries they're coming in at lower grades and they're coming in at less favorable jurisdictions. The bigger gold companies no longer have the ability to replace their declining reserve and resource base internally. And the competition for those external options is becoming really intense."