Newmont, the world’s leading gold company, invested $209 million in mineral exploration in 2021, up 11.8% year-on-year.
But if the same result of 2021 is compared with 2019, the year before the Covid-19 pandemic, the company registers a 21.1% decrease in that indicator.
Exploration expense increased in 2021, compared to 2020, primarily due to increased exploration activities in Australia, North and South America, partially offset by decreased exploration activities at Nevada Gold Mines (NGM) due to to the lower availability of drilling equipment.
Newmont is primarily a gold producer with significant operations and/or assets in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Suriname, Argentina, Chile, Australia and Ghana.
At the end of 2021, the company had attributable proven and probable gold reserves of 92.8 million ounces, measured and indicated gold resources of 68.3 million ounces and a total land position of approximately 24,300 square miles (62,800 square kilometers).
Newmont is also engaged in the production of copper, silver, lead and zinc.
Mining exploration
Market fluctuations in the price of gold, silver, copper, zinc, lead and molybdenum, as well as increased production costs or reduced metallurgical recovery rates, could change future estimates of the resources.
In general, for any company, mineral exploration efforts are directed towards the discovery of new resources and their conversion into proven and probable reserves.
Newmont conducts brownfield exploration around its existing mines and greenfield exploration in other regions worldwide.
Brownfield exploration may result in the discovery of additional deposits, which may benefit economically from existing management, processing and operational infrastructure.
In contrast, the discovery of mineralization through greenfield exploration efforts will require a capital investment to build an independent operation.
Newmont is the only gold company included in the S&P 500 index and on the Fortune 500 list.
Newmont has been ranked the top miner on 3BL Media’s Top 100 Corporate Citizens list, which ranks America’s 1,000 largest publicly traded companies on environmental, social and governance (ESG) transparency and performance since 2020.
