Gold discoveries not keeping pace with mined production

Halifax, Nova Scotia, July 17, 2012 – Metals Economics Group’s (MEG) recently released study, Strategies for Gold Reserves Replacement: The Costs of Finding and Acquiring Gold, reports that 99 significant gold discoveries (defined as a deposit containing at least 2 million oz of gold) have been reported so far in the 1997-2011 period, containing 743 million oz of gold in reserves, resources, and past production as of year-end 2011. Assuming a 75% resource-conversion rate and a 90% recovery rate during production, these 99 discoveries could potentially replace only 56% of the estimated gold mined during the same period, if they are economical to mine. Then again, the economic viability of the discovered gold relies to a large extent on location, politics, capital and operating costs, and market conditions, which will inevitably further reduce the amount of resources that will reach production.

The Americas hold the greatest share of gold in these discoveries—not surprising given that the Americas have accounted for more than half the industry’s discovery-oriented gold exploration spending during the period. Overall, reserves and resources in the 99 discoveries only account for about 18% of all reserves and resources in the world’s currently producing mines and developing projects, indicating that most of the industry’s exploration-derived gold has been added through brownfields work and exploration at older, known deposits.