This study investigates lead times from discovery to production for a unique data set of gold and copper discoveries worldwide during 1950–2014. The study employs standard parametric and nonparametric duration analysis. The results suggest an important role for copper prices; for instance, an upswing at the time of discovery can hasten the development of the mine by two to three years in low-income countries. There appears to be a similarly beneficial impact on lead times of sounder macroeconomic policies and quality of governance. Source: https://documents1.worldbank.org/ Tehmina Khan, Trang Nguyen, Franziska Ohnsorge and Richard Schodde