Stages and Disciplines in Project DevelopmentThe stages of gold project development are not sharply defined, having different names depending on who is using them, as well as the scope of each blurring into one another. The subject is confused further by companies renaming their stage to sound more positive than really is. A pre-feasibility study that is past its due date of release due to the company struggling to make the thing work might start being referred to as an advanced pre-feasibility study just to buy time. Project Development starts with a back of the envelope estimate of what a resource could be worth if mined. No one starts spending money on development if even the most bullish estimates of a resource's profitability aren't positive. A resource is never dead however, just dormant. Higher gold prices, growth of the resource, a new processing technology, a toll treatment option at a new local mine, can all turn what was yesterday an uneconomic resource into what can now become a gold mine. Even once operating mines long since dormant are reopened decades later with new gold prices or mining methods (options value playing out). The stages of evaluation and development start by giving broad estimates and progress through to relative certainty. Note surprisingly, the cost of such work starts out small and increases greatly. and become |