Title: 2023 Corporate Exploration Strategies
Duration: 1 hour
Preliminary results for global exploration budget data from S&P Global Market Intelligence's Corporate Exploration Strategies, or CES, series shows that exploration budgets decreased in 2023 due to languishing financing activity for the junior sector after metal prices pulled back from the highs reached in 2021 and 2022. We estimate the global nonferrous exploration budget to decrease by 3% in 2023 to $12.6 billion from $13.1 billion in 2022.
Many of our expectations for budgets this year played out. The junior sector, which is reliant on the marketplace to fund its activities, decreased. On the other hand, major companies saw a modest increase. Exploration for critical minerals saw significant gains, whereas gold budgets fell off. Geographically, both Australia and Canada had the largest declines as their large junior explorer populations encountered issues funding their programs; in both countries, gold exploration was the most affected. In contrast, exploration directed to Latin America increased this year on the back of stronger copper and lithium allocations. Despite the overall decrease in budgets, the number of active explorers increased modestly to 2,234 in 2023 from 2,189 in 2022.
The current weakness in both metal prices and financing levels is expected to persist through 2023 and into at least the first half of 2024. This will restrict any significant increases to budgets for next year. Continuing interest in the mining supply chain, however, should help insulate the sector from any significant decreases in exploration levels.
Join us as we review 2023 global exploration budget trends and look ahead to 2024:
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