Debunking a myth DEFINITIONS AND METHODOLOGY

A discovery is defined here as a mineral deposit attractive enough to have warranted the expenditure necessary to establish its tonnage and grade. The date of discovery is normally taken to be the year when initial drilling led to the recognition that the deposit was of sufficient economic interest to justify the further drilling expenditures necessary to calculate its tonnage and grade. In deciding on the discoverer, credit is given to the company that drilled the first hole intersecting the deposit, provided that reasonably continuous exploration, by any company, followed as evidence that the significance of the initial find was recognized. For example, where, within a year or two, either the same or another company, by further drilling, arrived at estimates of size and grade of the entire deposit, the discovery is credited to the company that drilled the initial hole.

In some cases, the significance of the first drill-hole intersection was apparently not fully recognized, because follow-up exploration did not take place for several years or because the claim block was allowed to lapse before another company picked up the scent years later. In such cases, credit for the discovery of the deposit is given to the company whose work eventually led to the establishment of the deposit’s tonnage and grade — rather than to the company doing the initial drilling and which walked away from the site, failing to recognize the full significance of its own exploration results.

Applying rigid rules to assigning discovery credit doesn’t always make sense. In a few complex cases, logic and common sense were used to overrule the rules. On occasion, room for doubt or argument remained.