New study shows a $1.1 billion drop in gold exploration budgets this year as juniors struggle to raise capital, but the precious metal still accounts for 46% of the total. , overall mining exploration budgets fell this year for the first time since 2020, dropping 3% to $12.8 billion at the 2,235 companies that allocated funds to find or expand deposits.
Gold exploration budgets, like most mined commodities, peaked in 2012 when the precious metal accounted for nearly half the more than $20 billion spent. It is an indication of the difficulty junior exploration companies have had over the last year or so of tapping markets for new funding. Overall the 41,086 holes drilled around the world from January to mid-Oct 2023 in search of non-ferrous metals and minerals represent a 23% decline compared to last year.
Murphy says copper exploration lagged behind other metals when it came to the shift of exploration to minesites, but this year despite growing budgets overall grassroots exploration for copper declined compared to 2022. The undeveloped nature of the lithium mining industry also shows up in the stages of development with grassroots, late stage exploration and feasibility making up the vast majority of field work being carried out.
Exploration in the US also jumped substantially – the country is home to the second largest undeveloped resource of lithium globally.