You are saying 1000 MT of reserves per year, or just 1000 Mt of reserves total? The former is hard to figure, and the latter appears to be not too much.
Generally in the old days gold mines would start with 3 years reserves. Of course you cannot plan an open pit that way, and larger ops required a bit more certainty. But most gold mines were trial gold mines, with few in fact failing, so they could get away with it. Some early camps like Kenora really suffered from lack of technology and rising costs. Milling methods were down around 25% recovery and mining was haphazard. Grinding was by stamp mills. They left many good small to medium and high grade orebodies behind that never saw another drill hole.
The other area to see so-so exploration techniques and bad milling technology was the Zealand Twp, Van Houten area, near Dryden. Old style mills started on undrilled projects. They all failed. The area had good sheared arenites and meaty ore. Teck got in and got a hold of the best project in modern times and that killed it. Like a lot of big companies wanting too much step by step verification that doesn't work, they flub a lot of drill offs. The whole Kenora-Wabigoon break has died. It is over 100 miles of good likely greenstone and sediment gold veining. Looks dry a lot of the time, but when gold is found it is surprisingly good.
Timmins and Kirkland had good technology. Mill recovery was excellent, cyanide and flotation were being used and also and not unimportantly, good assay techniques. Few operations had bad technology or really bad recovery. Don't believe their figures of 95 or even 90%, but they got most of the gold out. But if it hadn't been for the Benny Hollinger discovery and Harry Oakes the area would be a two mine camp, Dome and the Kirkland. They would probably say that Kirkland Lake was granite and unlikely. (The gold is found in red brick syenites ... The whole Motherlode camp is granites too ... ).
Who knows about Madoc and the like? The Sultana? The potential has never been revisited. When the 80's rolled around the brokers did not want to hear about narrow vein gold mines. Had to be gold zones. 30 feet wide. Open pit, Hemlo style ore. Assholes. Where do they think gold is found? How do they think it is found? A lot of projects I was on where the same old veins, they just changed their terminology for the public consumption.
There is a lot of ore left behind under miles of taiga spruce and swamp. A lot of drill offs that are head scratchers. Perhaps 100 possible properties with holes in them from the 70's and 80's that could have been mines and nobody knows what they really run or how to make them economic. Old mines left behind that were mined wrong. I ran into one where the former mill manager told me they mined it in narrow stopes but the whole thing ran 1/10 of an ounce over 300 feet! They could not afford to mine it that way underground. Well I don't know about that, but I can see that sort of thinking with some undercapitalized companies.
Mines are made not found. And there are lots to be made.
It will take time. My estimate is 100's of years to get to them all. Some will just remain there for a long long while. There is just not the curiousity or belief to return to other people's mistakes or do grass roots exploration. Nobody I have spoken to in the past 30 years has the budget or the brains for grass roots.
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