Wednesday, 28th June 2006 (3673 views)

The vice president of sales at Metals Economic Group (MEG), David Cox, speaking at the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) conference has warned that gold reserves will be extinguished by 2020 if new discoveries are not made.

According to reports at miningmx.com, Mr Cox told delegates at the conference that action must be taken soon because if present levels of exploration and discovery were maintained reserves would not last any more than 14 years.

"I believe the world's gold majors have been good at replacing reserves but some of it has been from merger and acquisition activity and brown fields development," he said.

"Only grassroots exploration can add production to the industry," Mr Cox added.

MEG's statistics will also show that while over a quarter of the world's new mining projects are located in Africa, less than ten per cent of the total resources can be found on the continent, which could result in a potential supply shortage if things do not change.

 

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