Mineral exploration 2002 Global review

摘要

Mineral exploration generally remained at a low ebb during 2002. Low base metals prices served as a discouragement although, in the precious metals sector, stronger gold and platinum prices towards the end of the year encouraged major gold companies to increase their exploration budgets. The trend towards consolidation amongst the major mining companies continued, albeit a reduced ?ate, and this contributed towards the overall reduction in exploration budgets as spending by the consolidated companies was generally held at a lower rate than that of their component companies. By commodity, the most popular targets for exploration worldwide were platinum group metals (PGM) and diamonds. Zinc exploration showed a sharp decline because of the low price of the metal.