Newmont May Take Out Tyhee.

Newmont owns property very neat BigSky and has just purchased one of Tyhee's NWT neighbors, Miramar.

http://www.reuters.com/article/Globa...

Newmont CFO expects falling industry output

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global gold mine output will decline over the next decade or so because of production constraints and past underinvestment in finding new resources, the world's No. 2 gold producer, Newmont Mining Corp, said on Wednesday.

"We (the industry) are in a 1 to 2 percent decline for at least the foreseeable future. I would see that as the next 10 years," Chief Financial Officer Russell Ball told the Reuters Global Mining Summit.

Global mine production decreased 1 percent to 2,447 tonnes in 2007, according to a recent study compiled by precious metals consultant GFMS Ltd for the World Gold Council.

"You can find those big deposits, but you only find them very infrequently and the industry as a whole is not replacing depletion," Ball said.

Ball said in the next three to five years, production will be constrained by decisions that had been made on investing in new capital," Ball said.

"Even if we (the industry) find a big deposit tomorrow in a greenfield environment, it will be 10 to 12 years to bring it into production," he said.

Ball also said that supply from scrap gold recycling had slowed, and that he was optimistic about the price of bullion.

Fundamentally, he said, the industry is in deficit, with demand for gold at about 4,000 tons per year and production at about 2,500. The shortfall comes from central bank sales and scrap and recycled supply.

"I don't see where the additional gold is going to come from. And I don't think the gold market, which is a small market in the scheme of capital market globally, quite appreciates that supply-demand picture," Ball said.