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NEWGENGOLD REVIEW

Find more gold: Schodde

by Michael Washbourne

esearch from MinEx Consulting’s Richard Schodde has better at exploration. I’d like to think we will see both.”
Rindicated the industry is not finding enough gold to replace In a wide-ranging presentation featuring a number of statistics,
what is being mined. Schodde noted today’s global spend on gold exploration of
In his first address at NewGenGold since 2015, Schodde said $US4.4 billion was down 62% on the 2012 peak of $US11.8
for every 1.4oz of gold found over the last decade, one ounce billion. Discovery rates have also plateaued at 35-45 deposits
was being extracted from the ground. annually.
However, he pointed out that not all gold discoveries were being The size of new deposits is also declining, according to
converted into mines and for those deposits which were being Schodde, with the current average of 3.2 moz significantly down
developed, the time lag between discovery and start-up was on the 5 moz reported during the 1980s and 1990s despite the
now 20 years – and rising. better exploration techniques that exist today.
“The industry is struggling to sustain itself,” Schodde said. “There has been a slow decline in the size of deposits being
“We’re not finding enough economic and socially acceptable found, but grades have remained relatively constant,” Schodde
gold to replace what we mine when you take into account that said.
only half of all deposits actually turn into mines. And those that “My comment would be that the last decade or so is probably
do turn into mines, only about three-quarters of the ounces are underestimating the true size of these deposits because these
there. things do grow over time. If I come back and revisit this chart in
“There’s two things that have to happen; either the price of gold a decade’s time, I’m sure it will be lot larger than 3.2 moz.”
goes up so it brings extra spend into the market or it brings Australia continues to outperform its peer countries in
marginal projects into production, or we have to be smarter and exploration expenditure, Schodde added. While that spend is

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