Application of the Proven MineralReserve category implies that the Qualified Person has the highest degree of confidence in the estimate with the consequent expectation in the minds of the readers of the report.
Which in turn means that published reserve numbers for any metal or mineral are not what we should use if we want to talk about binding resource constraints.
With both mineral and tobacco exports falling far short of expectations, the Reserve Bank was forced to dole out half of its meagre reserves to meet basic import needs.