Grade-cost relationships within Australian underground gold mines – A 2014–2017 empirical study and potential value implications

Ulrich, Sam; Trench, Allan; Hagemann, Steffen

doi:10.1016/j.resourpol.2019.01.009

Cited by 19 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 8 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Gold mines can be open pit, underground operations or developed as a combination of the two. The grade of gold that is mined can vary tenfold, for example from less than 1 gram per tonne of rock to over 10 grams per tonne of rock ( Ulrich et al, 2019 ). Gold mining companies also have different balance sheets, capital costs, operating costs (All-In-Sustaining-Costs, AISC, Gianfrate (2017) ), currency exposure, production scale ( Guj, 2011 ), hedge books ( Tufano (1998) and Fang et al (2007) ), in-ground reserves or resources ( Ulrich et al, 2019 ) and vastly different environmental footprints (including Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Mudd (2007a) and Ulrich et al (2020) ).…”

Section: Data and Descriptive Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Not all gold shines in crisis times — Gold firms, gold bullion and the COVID-19 shock

Baur

Trench

2022

Journal of Commodity Markets

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Data and Descriptive Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Not all gold shines in crisis times — Gold firms, gold bullion and the COVID-19 shock

Baur

Trench

2022

Journal of Commodity Markets

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…ual cost and revenue drivers, such as gold ore grades, have previously been shown to be particularly influential over the economics of individual mining projects [e.g. 45]. The validation of Bluecap model's ability to distinguish a reasonable break-even cost frontier between potentially economic and uneconomic mineral resources is encouraging given the inherent complexity in the cost estimation processes.…”

Section: Case Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bluecap: A Geospatial Model to Assess Regional Economic-Viability for Mineral Resource Development

Walsh¹,

Northey²,

Huston³

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Frontier mineral exploration is often exclusively focused on assessing geological potential without consideration for the economic viability of resource development. This strategy may overlook potentially prosperous zones for more geologically-favoured but financially-disadvantageous regions, or conversely, may introduce implicit biases against potential developments without due regard to underlying economies of scale or proximity to infrastructure. Accordingly, in this paper, we introduce a numerical model aimed at identifying economic fairways, i.e. areas permissive to mineral development from an economic perspective. The model, Bluecap, combines large-scale infrastructure and geological datasets to conduct geospatial analysis of the economic-viability of mining operations across Australia.We provide a detailed description of the inputs and assumptions that underlie the cost models employed in Bluecap, outlining the methods used to evaluate mining, processing, administrative and infrastructure expenses. We also describe the databases used by the model to evaluate available infrastructure, transportation distances and depth of cover. Finally, we present examples that demonstrate the use of the Bluecap model on regions around Mount Isa and the Murray Basin to verify its ability to evaluate commercially feasible mineral prospects. While the immediate utility of this model stands to benefit mineral explorers, its ability to map mineral economic fairways also provides an objective, evidence base to underpin government decision making with respect to position of new infrastructure and consideration of * Corresponding Author

show abstract

Deposit-scale structural controls on orogenic gold deposits: an integrated, physical process–based hypothesis and practical targeting implications

Hronsky

2019

Miner Deposita

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Grade-cost relationships within Australian underground gold mines – A 2014–2017 empirical study and potential value implications

Cited by 19 publications

References 8 publications

Not all gold shines in crisis times — Gold firms, gold bullion and the COVID-19 shock

Not all gold shines in crisis times — Gold firms, gold bullion and the COVID-19 shock

Bluecap: A Geospatial Model to Assess Regional Economic-Viability for Mineral Resource Development

Deposit-scale structural controls on orogenic gold deposits: an integrated, physical process–based hypothesis and practical targeting implications

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About