Dust flux, Vostok ice core

Dust flux, Vostok ice core
Two dimensional phase space reconstruction of dust flux from the Vostok core over the period 186-4 ka using the time derivative method. Dust flux on the x-axis, rate of change is on the y-axis. From Gipp (2001).

Friday, September 26, 2014

Gold still number one . . .

. . . in exploration expenditures, according to Wilburn and Stanley (2014).


It's been awhile since I updated this info here, and actually forgot about it when the data became available earlier this year amidst my life falling apart and my relocation to China.

Gold is still the principal goal of exploration--but my eyes may detect a long-term trend. Mayhap that dominance is decreasing. It is still a long way from the heyday of life when expenditures on gold exploration were dwarfed by exploration for base (pdf) metals.

The copper results have not been reported independently since 2005, so I have assumed that Cu expenditures are 58% of total base metal exploration costs since then--that number representing the average value for that ratio over the preceding nine years. The exploration expenditure on copper over the last nine years is therefore an estimate.

Reference: Wilburn, D. R., and Stanley, K. A., 2014. Annual Exploration Review 2013, Mining Engineering, v. 66 (5); 18-39. Lots of other good info in this article (subscription required)

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