(another excerpt from Jim Sinclair Gold production report)

The costs of future mining will be fortune, so great, it was unimaginable in the former days of mining.  The price of gold will need to be north of $5000 per ounce for potential mining operations to be able to undertake the tasks from exploration to production.  Until a $5000 per ounce price of gold is a reality, do not expect to see gold reaching the market from mining supply.  There is no clean money for exploration whatsoever. If a miner does not have the ore, it may never be had. If a miner has a bonanza, the miner must be a master at fending off every type of criminal, from the modernized claim jumpers to stock operators working to make financing for you more difficult.  For all of the foregoing reasons, mining supply is dwindling and any company who has not already overcome the obstacles mentioned above in this article will not be able to explore, mine or produce gold for the marketplace.  The diminishing gold available to be mined will cause the price of gold to skyrocket.  As the charts reveal, gold able to be mined in 2018 may be half of what was available in 2017 and prior years.  The reasons for the reduction in the mining supply of gold is for all of the foregoing reasons.

 https://www.jsmineset.com/2018/01/23/mining-supply/