Mining is a bit of a paradox. Historically mining companies were the "start-ups" of their day. When you discovered a deposit you'd stake a claim (e.g. patent)

Mining is a bit of a paradox. Historically mining companies were the "start-ups" of their day. When you discovered a deposit you'd stake a claim (e.g. patent) and then seek investors to exploit it (e.g. venture funding). If the discovery turned out to be genuine and the mine was successful the returns would often be extraordinary. Thing is, a lot of mines fail. Maybe there's resources there but extracting them isn't practical or profitable. Maybe there wasn't as much there as theorized. Maybe it was all a lie. The paradox is that once you have a successful mining industry built up, people think of those as the conservative play, the safe bet, and are reluctant to go through that process all over again with a new industry.