In a Record Gold Market, the Fastest Ounces Are the Ones Already Out of the Ground
In a strong commodity market, one of mining’s hardest constraints is time. With gold trading above US$4,100 an ounce and silver near US$62, margins have widened and capital is chasing the sector. The constraint is time. A new discovery can spend a decade or longer moving through resource definition, permitting, financing, construction and commissioning before a single ounce reaches a refinery. In a high-price cycle, that lag matters. The most valuable ounce may not be the highest-grade ounce buried in fresh rock. It may be the ounce that becomes cash the soonest. Increasingly, ...