Overview Of Worldwide Exploration Budgets: Targets And Stages of Development

摘要

A look at 2004 exploration allocations by target shows gold, base metals (led by a sharp rise in copper exploration), and other-target allocations (primarily silver, mineral sands, cobalt, and industrial minerals) rising at or above the 62 percent average increase for all commodities; diamonds holding up well but at a less-than-average increase; and platinum group metals recording the weakest growth. Figure 1 below illustrates the distribution of the 3.55 billion dollars in exploration allocations by target for the 1,138 companies included in this year's study compared with the 2.19 billion dollars budgeted by 917 companies in 2003. Gold, which consistently attracts more exploration expenditure than any other metal, has returned to account for 50 percent of this year's allocations after four consecutive years of receiving less than half of the overall budget total. Gold allocations in 2004 are up 68 percent to a total of almost 1.8 billion dollars, but are still well below the 1997 peak, when gold attracted almost 3 billion dollars in allocations and represented 65 percent of overall spending. During the past three years, geopolitical uncertainty on a global level, a weaker U.S. dollar, a spiraling increase in the U.S. deficit, and continued producer dehedging have all contributed to strengthening the gold price, which in turn is both sparking and supporting the resurgence of gold-related exploration spending. We expect the current trend of increased gold exploration to continue next year, with a strong gold price and continuing investor interest in junior companies underpinning a high level of activity.