Gold exploration budget topped 6 Billion 2012

Gold exploration budgets increased drastically since 1999, reaching an all-time high of more than $6 billion in 2012, but the total amount of precious metal found in major discoveries fell short of replacing global production, shows a report by SNL Metals Economics Group.

While it is too early to judge the success of recent exploration, says the report, data for 1990-2012 reveals that miners' annual discovery-oriented gold exploration budget more than doubled between 1990 and 1997 from $930 million to about $2.2 billion.

According to the document, exploration budgets fell in 1998 along with gold prices to recover by 2003, jumping an average of 31% annually until last year. Read More at Source

Video Documentary of The Hemlo Gold Discovery

Prospectors John Larch, Don McKinnon and Richard Hughes discovered gold in the Hemlo camp in the early 1980s, starting a staking rush not seen in Canada since the Klondike gold rush of the late 19th century. Two companies, Golden Sceptre and Goliath Resources, secured rights to a large land package in the area, and were subsequently acquired by Noranda.