Figure 3. From McCuaig, Guj, Hronsky, and Schodde (2009). As the brownfields “search space” becomes depleted with continued mining and exploration, brownfields mineral exploration costs rise and average discovered deposit size grows smaller.
Figure 4. The disconnect between exploration expenditure and discovery – the case of gold. 58 TPG • Oct.Nov.Dec 2020 www.aipg.org