It's usually a fairly lengthy process. Going from new discovery...

It's usually a fairly lengthy process. Going from new discovery to commencing mining can take anywhere from 5 to 10+ years as there's a significant amount of work involved with proving up the resource, establishing mine plans, plant design, environmental approvals, cultural heritage clearance/agreements etc etc...

If the deposit is mineralogically simple and near existing mining infrastructure, 3 to 5 years is possible especially with a good study team in place plus being aggressively pursued by management (think along the lines of satellite deposits within 10-20km of existing mines). 10+ years if its a greenfields area with no nearby infrastructure for the area or deposit type (e.g. U deposit vs Cu/Pb-Zn etc). That's also not accounting for any additional hoops you might have to jump through for a Uranium deposit...

Either way, there's always a need for a development pipeline