More than half of mining execs think industry is on its way up

The number of optimist leaders is up significantly from the mere 22% of respondents that thought things would get better in the second half of 2012 when asked in June. However there is still a 31% who believe the mining industry is likely to perform worse.

Despite the volatile year for the sector worldwide, the survey showed a marked difference on the executives’ perspective over a 12 month period, with 74% thinking that their company is positioned to outperform the market as a whole.

One of the most cheerful findings of the survey is that 90% of the interviewed executives indicated they were not considering any further layoffs for the rest of 2012.

Instead 66% of respondents say they expect to recruit over the next six months. This is a major reversal in outlook from the last polling, where 60% indicated that they would not be hiring.

In the current landscape, 74% of those polled said that their companies have made a concerted effort to reduce overhead. When asked how that has been accomplished, 70% answered they have scaled back on their exploration and development plans; 60% said they reduced their marketing and investor relations budget; and 35% admitted they have been laying off existing employees.

An overwhelming 89% of respondents indicated that they were just as focused on maintaining cost cutting initiatives as they were six months ago.

The elephant in the room is getting smaller

59% of respondents were moderately to extremely concerned over a lack of investment capital moving into the industry over the next two years, down from 76% holding this view in June.

Substantially down as well is the level of concern over the volatility in commodities prices over the next two years. Only 23% of the executives interviewed said they were moderately to extremely concerned, a marked difference from the 43% of respondents who indicated so in the last polling.

And when asked as to how the current conditions have affected their short term business objectives, 52% of those asked admit that their companies have already scaled back previous laid exploration and development initiatives, whereas only 37% say that current conditions have had no effect on their plans.