The industry is flush with cash after last year’s record profits, while boards and managers believe they have the support of key investors after promising to avoid the reckless overspending of the last cycle.
The trust that allowed for global trade over the last 30 years has shifted irreversibly, and countries are now scrambling to secure supplies of natural resources as a matter of national security.
Ridgway and the exploration teams under his guidance have discovered gold deposits in Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua and a silver-gold deposit in Mexico.