| The largest resource market on the globe is the Toronto TSX which uses the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results ( JORC ) and other damn near equivilent definitions. https://www.jorc.org/ Pages 8 & 9: https://www.jorc.org/docs/JORC_code_2012.pdf Essentially: (Inferred | Indicated) Resources is weak guesswork whereas: (Measured | Proved) Reserves is (almost) bankable. If you're in a certtain type of geology that looks a lot like other geology that's been mined, and you have some surface geochemstry results you can claim to have (say) a 10 square mile area of indicated copper resources which correlates with (say) 500 million tonnes of extractable resources. This will then appear in a resource map .. and it's fantasy footbal stuff. The real money gravitates towards increasing proven resources - this is a volume of the earths crust that has been * surface tested, * geophysically tested, * sparsely drill tested, * densely drill tested, * modelled as a 3D volumetric dispersal of elements and compounds, * modelled for economic feasibility of extraction (will it cost less to extract than the value of the material extracted). This is the evolution of potential mining ground from a prospect through to something that gets listed on a minerals exchange as a capital investment to build processing equipment and dig holes | shafts | leach mining | etc. |
s/fantasy footbal /fantasy football /
> The real money gravitates towards increasing proven reserves etc.
Like a Reserve Bank - a mineral Reserve is a known entity - at least as known as anything can be to the limits of modern technology prior to actually digging it up.
There's been enough drilling to know the volumetric extents and grades of the materials of interest (most deposits have multiple minerals of interest), and quite often there's been an independant third party engineering and economic Technical Report commissioned on the feasibility of extraction, costs, methods, lifetime, and expected profit margins.