Production at the Penasquito Mine, which produced more than a 500,000 ounces of gold and 25 million ounces of silver in a single year has been suspended dues to water concerns.
When you are looking at a potential mine it is not enough that there is a resource in the ground, you have to be aware of the infrastructure and the other resources required to extract and process the ore. In the case of the open pit at Penasquito, in 2017, it took 7.9 billion gallons of water operate the mine. Three times the original estimate.