SNL Metals & Mining
Commodities Now
In light of declining discovery rates and a longer time to advance a discovery to production, the gold industry’s future ability to replace production through large discoveries is in doubt. Analysis suggests that discoveries made since 1999 might eventually only replace half of the gold produced over the same period.
Over the past 24 years, mining companies discovered 1.66 billion ounces of gold in 217 major gold discoveries, SNL Metals & Mining’s 2014 edition of Strategies for Gold Reserves Replacement shows.
While that sounds like a significant amount of gold, it falls short of the 1.84 billion ounces produced over the same period. In addition, the amount of gold discovered and the number of major discoveries (defined as any deposit with a minimum of 2 million ounces of contained gold) have been trending downward over time, from 1.1 billion ounces in 124 deposits discovered during the 1990s to only 605 million ounces in 93 deposits discovered since 2000.