Figure 3 – Mining Project Life Cycle (based on Cuchierato et al., 2025). Recognizing that each phase involves specific decision points, regulatory obligations, and risk conditions, the methodology emphasizes data governance, validation, and evidence generation as foundations for reliable decision-making and technology adoption in mineral projects. For each stage, the approach evaluates reporting compliance, assesses data quality and consistency, and verifies whether available evidence adequately supports development decisions. Multidisciplinary verification across geological, engineering, and operational domains ensures models and technical assumptions remain traceable and auditable. The outcome of this structured evaluation is a transparent scoring system that assesses the maturity and reliability of available information and identifies gaps, inconsistencies, or risks that could compromise project progress or valuation. In addition to scoring, it provides guidance on required data improvements, complementary studies, or validation actions necessary to strengthen technical confidence and regulatory readiness. In doing so, the methodology transforms compliance verification into a proactive mechanism for continuous improvement and a structured action plan, enabling projects to progress systematically toward higher levels of technical robustness, stakeholder trust, and investment readiness. 3.2 What does it control? – Enablers and control threads to reduce project delays Whincup and Kroon (2025) analyzed project schedules across ERM’s global mining portfolio to identify where development delays occur and how companies can reduce the time between discovery and mine operation. The study builds on ERM’s 2023 review of 162 mineral projects under development since 2015 and was expanded in 2025 to include additional gold projects. Of the 306 projects assessed, 226 contained sufficient data for delay analysis, including 96 gold projects and 132 critical mineral projects covering cobalt, copper, graphite, lithium, manganese, nickel, rare earth elements, and zinc. For each project, ERM reviewed company disclosures and public sources to determine whether schedules were delayed, the extent of delay, and principal causes. The analysis shows delays are widespread and occur primarily in early development stages: 64% of projects reported delays during pre-production, and nearly half occurred before feasibility studies were completed. These results indicate that delays are not isolated events but reflect the growing regulatory, environmental, social, and technical complexity of modern mining development. Market volatility in critical minerals further complicates financing decisions, contributing to delays driven by interrelated factors affecting project execution and investment
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