Furthermore, since new mines can take as long as a decade to develop, mining executives say, and since firms made few investments during the lean years of the 1980s and 1990s, supply could take a long time to catch up with demand.

ECONOMIST: How to make sense of the current plethora of mining deals

Mining executives say that while they chuckle about the quirks of older geologists, they recognize the business value of their memory of previous exploratory work, their grasp of complex rock formations and their discipline in knowing how to meticulously chart new territory.

WSJ: In Geology, Old-Timers Can Be Worth Their Weight in Gold