Exploration spending is set to swell by around 20% in 2021, as cashed up juniors and majors reactivate plans post-COVID, Mark Ferguson, head of mining studies at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Copper and gold will outperform other metals, accounting for a huge chunk of the predicted $10 billion spend this year, but exploration will be more “broad based” than S&P anticipated six months ago when gold was the only bull in the metals market, Ferguson the virtual PDAC 2021 forum.
The jump in the gold price drove the initial uptick in investors piling into mining equities last year but raisings by other commodity miners recovered later in the year – thanks to the jump in copper, iron ore and other metal prices – meaning finance is no object to exploration in 2021.
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