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The consultancy explained that typically, low-grade materials require a greater amount of rock to be extracted and processed, longer processing times and higher reagents usage, which translates to higher costs per unit of gold produced. According to the report, this is because ore is usually mined as part of a long term mine plan which cannot be easily adjusted to target higher or lower grade areas of the ore body. Most operations have some flexibility through processing of stockpiled high and low grade material but this is limited.
More importantly, these falling grades have not only been driven by rising prices, but also the depletion of higher-grade reserves at mature mines.