Gold just fell off a cliff..., page-345

The banks and the other financiers are knowing first hand the financial viability of gold mining projects, and heading for the door. Mining is a tough business, and right now not many are making money, let alone good money to justify the risks.

The gold exploration business is demonstrably non-viable, with an appalling disocvery rate, and falling..., and finally the chickens have come home to roost, and is recognized by the investment community...you cannot get finance to invest in gold exploration....from another viewpoint, it is cheaper to buy the distressed companies with Jorc resources, with some companies like GRY being priced for companies to be paid to acquire the resource ounces.

New discoveries of sizable gold deposits from greenfields exploration sits at abut 1 in the last 10 years in Australia, and the brownfields expl is achieving better results with the addition of new 3d mapping technology, like 3d seismics (see Nothern Star and evolution). Time from greenfields discovery to production is about 10 years if you are good (see Independence Group)

Good luck to the "predictionists" who factor in steady state production for the next few decades, this will not happen is my bet.