The mineral industry is an opportunity-based challenging investment with high risk. Risks include geological uncertainties, technical inefficiency, commercial feasibility, political stability, and the will of regulating authorities. Investment decisions arise at exploration, development, and production with interrelated components of resource, risk, and revenue. Investment risk can be visualized through cash flow, net present value, internal rate of return, and sensitivity analysis resulting in profit or loss. Investors prefer early and bigger benefits. Sources of investment risks include scientific, technical, price fluctuation, and sociopolitical determination. Economic evaluation is assessed on technical, economic, and community needs. Information is collected during geological, feasibility, and economic studies with due diligence at that point of operation. Evaluation factors are gross in situ value, mining and milling losses, smelting and refining charges, transportation costs, capital and operating expenditure, revenue income, inflation, depreciation, depletion, amortization, royalties, taxes, and cash flow with examples of two scoping studies. A checklist for information collection norms for investment in new mineral projects is discussed.
Exploration case histories enrich our knowledge base for future mineral search. They help in conceptualizing the possibility of mineral occurrences in new matching environments. Topics include: ancient metal mining traditions at Zawar, India, the world's largest and richest zinc deposit at Broken Hill , Australia, the single largest porphyry copper-molybdenum deposit at Malanjkhand, India, routine drilling that discovered concealed Sindesar-Khurd Zn–Pb–Ag, India, geophysical success in locating concealed Neves Corvo orebody, Portugal, the world's largest platinum-chromium deposit at Bushveld, South Africa, the world's largest nickel-platinum deposit at Sudbury, Canada, the single largest Ni–Cu–PGE deposit at Jinchuan, China, geostatistical applications in borehole optimization at Rampura-Agucha, India, and environmental system management at Jhamarkotra rock phosphate mine, India. Mineral discovery trends can be analyzed for the country as well as from a global perspective to forecast and overview the future path of exploration. Each deposit has its own unique characteristics, and symbolizes a type. Each case history focuses on the application aspect of the book. Eleven case studies allow one to quickly apply exploration concepts to real-life scenarios in the field.
