As all miners well know, exploding operating and capital costs have diminished profits and sent handfuls of CEOs packing over the past year.
Higher costs coupled with volatility in prices are increasingly threatening, and are causing big companies to pull back from new projects and acquisitions.
More pressure on the sector from waves of resource nationalism, stringent environmental and safety regulations, taxes and political and community activism all amount to a longer, tougher road to production.
"We used to say five years from discovery to production," Ives noted, "now it's 15 plus."
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