Abstract
Lawrence Devon Smith
It is estimated that there is a 1 in 3000 chance that a mineral prospect will become an operating mine. Is there a way to find out early on if your property is one of the 2999 that won’t succeed and save time, effort, and money?
The idea of “Fail Fast” is common in the Tech industry for identifying early the GO and NO-GO concepts. In Tech it is important to “cut losses” when something isn't working, to be “agile” and quickly “pivot” to something else, to "fail fast and fail often". These may sound like a lot of Tech world buzzwords, but the approach has worked. And it is also applicable to exploration.
“Fail Fast” is not new to mining. This paper presents and discusses examples of its application in mining and addresses concepts and issues such as:
• avoiding the sunk cost effect,
• taking the stigma out of the term failure,
• learning from failed attempts increases the probability of eventual success,
• targeting properties with the best chance of success.
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This paper probably fits best in the stream "Geological Innovations for Sustainable Mineral Exploration" possibly under the subsection "Silos and Breaking Down Barriers".
But, at whichever location in the technical program, this paper is ideally be paired with the proposed paper by Brian Buss “Simple Economic Tool for Early Stage Projects” which provides one of the basic tools for identifying “Fail Fast”