Gold, research and development, and exploration success

Abstract

The link between exploration success and new ideas from research and development (R&D), although often assumed, is rarely well explained or well illustrated. One issue is understanding the role of innovative ideas in the exploration process, and another is determining the relative contributing factors to an exploration success. A useful measure of gold exploration success over an extended time period and geographic area is discovery rate θ Discovery rate θ= gold discovered/exploration expenditure (usefully expressed as tonnes of gold per $1 million). The total gold discovered is strongly leveraged to discovery rate, as any increase in θ typically has a positive effect on exploration expe..