The largest resource market on the globe is the Toronto TSX which uses the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results ( JORC ) and other damn near equivilent definitions.
https://www.jorc.org/
Pages 8 & 9: https://www.jorc.org/docs/JORC_code_2012.pdf
Essentially: (Inferred | Indicated) Resources is weak guesswork
whereas: (Measured | Proved) Reserves is (almost) bankable.
If you're in a certtain type of geology that looks a lot like other geology that's been mined, and you have some surface geochemstry results you can claim to have (say) a 10 square mile area of indicated copper resources which correlates with (say) 500 million tonnes of extractable resources.
This will then appear in a resource map .. and it's fantasy footbal stuff.
The real money gravitates towards increasing proven resources - this is a volume of the earths crust that has been
* surface tested,
* geophysically tested,
* sparsely drill tested,
* densely drill tested,
* modelled as a 3D volumetric dispersal of elements and compounds,
* modelled for economic feasibility of extraction (will it cost less to extract than the value of the material extracted).
This is the evolution of potential mining ground from a prospect through to something that gets listed on a minerals exchange as a capital investment to build processing equipment and dig holes | shafts | leach mining | etc.