Session 5: Why Mines Fail?

The purpose of this session is to address some of the more common factors that contribute to mining development failures in hope that pitfalls can be avoided in future and the confidence of investors in mining projects can be restored. The fact that mines fail to live up to their production expectations and to provide adequate returns to investors is in part why money for exploration is so scarce these days. It is unreasonable to assume that investors will continue to provide funding when there is such a high risk that new mining operations will fail to deliver the returns promised by mine developers. In spite of many examples from the past of failed mining developments the industry still has to lean the “how not to” lessons of sustainable mine development.