Global exploration budgets at listed mining companies slumped to...

Global exploration budgets at listed mining companies slumped to a decade-low last year, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence, as volatile commodity markets cast a pall over risky exploration spending.

The Corporate Exploration Strategies 2016 report, which tracked the exploration budgets of 1580 miners globally, including 408 in Australia, shows that planned spending dropped to the lowest levels in more than a decade last year.

While the data considered in the report is limited, in that it does not include bulk commodities such as iron ore and bauxite, and excludes the diversified global players such as BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, the basket of budgets onsidered confirms last year saw a sharp drop in spending on exploration.

Global exploration budgets dropped to $US6.9 billion ($9.3 billion), down 21 per cent from $US8.8 billion in 2015, according to the report. Total Australian exploration budgets fell below $US1 billion for the first time in a decade, said the report, to $US897.4 million. That is down 16 per cent from 2015, and down 64 per cent from the $US2.5 billion allocated to exploration at the height of the commodities boom in 2012.

Australia’s budgets made up 13 per cent of the global total in the report, in line with previous years, and second only to Canada in exploration by country.

https://thewest.com.au/business/mining/exploration-spending-lowest-for-a-decade-ng-b88352988z