MAPPED: Top gold drill results – August 2019

Based on data compiled by MINING.COM’s sister company Mining Intelligence, exploration activity in the gold sector slumped in August 2019 after a breakthrough month in July, with both the number of reported drilled projects and the number of reported drillholes declining.

A trend towards exploration of advanced projects, rather than greenfield opportunities, returned in August with companies unwilling to take more early-stage exploration risks.

Grade-width is calculated as width of the drill intersection (in metres) multiplied by the grade (in grams of gold per tonne). Where multiple high-grade intersections were reported for an individual project, only the best interval has been considered.

“Despite a record high 6.2% month-over-month increase in gold prices, August was the worst month for gold exploration since the beginning of 2019 and companies were again very cautious when consider investing in drilling campaigns,” said Vladimir Basov, senior analyst at Mining Intelligence.

“At the same time, it is too early to say that declining exploration activities is a trend, as seasonal and other factors cannot be discounted.”

According to Mining Intelligence data compiled for August, companies reported exploration results for 108 projects, the lowest count observed since the beginning of 2019.

Australia and Canada dominated gold exploration during the month, with each country reporting 33 projects, respectively.

In August, companies reported results from a record-low 1,524 drillholes – the number of holes were down in all major regions.

There was a noticeable deterioration in overall drill intersection grades, with reported gold intersections with grades greater than 2 g/t have declined from 40% in July 2019 to 23% in August 2019.