It would have been interesting to know how much a company like Kodiak has paid for land held by individual prospectors. I wonder how they estimate probabilities of a find versus the location of the claim etc. Companies like Barrick must have probability models based on known geological features of the land as well as some finds.

In real estate it is location, location, location, in mining it is the same. Of course your location has to contain good tonnage of sufficient grade.

The fact that they have found gold and even mined gold in such and area with heavy overburden, I guess it is statistically likely that there is still much to be found and developed. In the old days probably most of the gold findings were based on outcrops which in an area with heavy overburden is very small relative to the total area. They did not have much access to helicopters and could not bring heavy equipment into the bush, so I suspect most of the finds were pretty easily visible. There were however, many more people running around in the bush, also trapping and hunting, but still their means of digging through the overburden was limited and time consuming.

Only time will tell, but I still put my bet on KXL