Mining’s old guard needs strong medicine
A new report details subpar investor returns in the mining industry over the last decade, particularly big cap diversified companies which have not adapted to new realities.
Preliminary estimates from Metals Economics Group’s (MEG) Corporate Exploration Strategies (CES) study indicate that 2011 nonferrous exploration budgets will exceed $17 billion for expenditures related to precious and base metals, diamonds, uranium, and some industrial minerals. This represents an increase of about 50% from the 2010 total and a new all time high. Collection and analysis continue, with the final exploration budget figures slated to appear in the publication of the CES study in late October 2011. MEG states that early analysis indicates that Latin America will continue to be the industry’s favorite regional exploration destination in 2011, while Canada will remain the top overall country. Budgets for grassroots, late-stage, and minesite exploration have all increased significantly, but the relative proportions allocated to each stage of development are expected to remain relatively stable compared with 2010.
Despite a sharp rise in the amount of money planned for grassroots work in 2011, the proportion of the overall industry exploration effort committed to long-term project generation is anticipated by MEG to remain near historically low levels – about a third of 2011’s exploration total compared with an average of about half the annual exploration totals through the 1990s. As would be expected, the preliminary findings indicate that gold is the top exploration target, and will likely account for about half of the global exploration total for the second consecutive year. Second-place copper is expected to account for roughly a fifth of the 2011 nonferrous exploration total. MEG’s analysis is based on information collected from more than 3,500 companies worldwide, of which about 2,400 are expected to have active exploration programs and will therefore be included in the final study.
