According to some experts, after the peak is reached, the production rate will slowly decline until it reaches near zero while the price shoots upward. At that point, we will have pretty much mined all the economic ore deposits that are present on the planet.

There is one last indicator that I believe may be the most important of all. That is the “Index of Leading Economic Indicators” (LEI), which is a compendium of those economic indicators that point toward future growth, and LEI has just reached historic highs, far exceeding previous peaks in 1999 and 2006.

…2017 was just the first year with a small increase after a huge drop off in exploration activity. It may take many years of future increases to get back to where the activity was in 2012, as projected increases in exploration spending are seen to be slow and steady.