A leading platinum industry figure has warned that resources are becoming increasingly difficult to find.

Speaking at the Reuters Mining Summit, Implats chief Keith Rumble was one of a number of mining heavyweights to allude to the increased pressure on exploration.

"We keep an active exploration program going in South America, in Canada, in the (United States) and Australia, but as yet we've not identified anything that really looks that prospective," he told the news agency.

It was a theme touched on by another pgm miner, Falconbridge, with the firm's chief executive Aaron Regent outlining its problems.

However, all the executives agreed that the incentives to continue to develop exploration portfolios were there.

In particular the rapid growth in Chinese demand for natural resources- through a mixture of industrialisation and the financial enfranchisement of a new middle class - was identified as a key trend for the mining industry.