After rising for six straight years to a 19-year record high of $13.2 billion in 2008, estimated planned nonferrous exploration spending for 2009 plummeted 42% to $7.7 billion. According to Metals Economics Group’s (MEG) 20th edition of Corporate Exploration Strategies (CES), the global economic crisis and declining prices for almost all mineral commodities took their toll on the industry. This year’s drop represents the largest year-on-year decline in global exploration budgets (in both dollar and percentage terms) since MEG began the CES study in 1989. (more…)