Ann: Presentation - Mines & Money Connect London, page-48

From Mining News.Net, 11th May

"The one bit of good news is that global non-ferrous mineral exploration is picking up — but still a long way from 2012's high of more than $20 billion, with 2022 seeing outlays south of $15 billion. But here's another worrying indicator: copper exploration budgets soared in 2012 but in the 2015-2021 period, when you would expect some of that earlier spending to be paying off, new copper discoveries have been flat-lining, well below annual new defined copper resource figures for the period 1990 to 2013 (with exceptions of 2000 and 2016). We are finding a great deal less copper now than 20 years ago — when we should be finding a great deal more!

In 1900 the average copper head grade was 40%; by 1950 it was slightly above 1.5% and in 2020 slightly below 1%.

It's a bit of a worry, isn't it?"