Since 2024, global exploration spending and drilling activities have continued to decline.

01 Global exploration expenditure on major solid mineral resources continues the downward trend

In 2024, the global exploration expenditure for major solid mineral resources was US$12.48 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 3.3%. In terms of mineral types, precious metal exploration expenditure still dominated the global major solid mineral resources exploration expenditure in 2024, accounting for 61.54% of the total exploration expenditure, or US$6.154 billion. Among them, gold exploration expenditure ranked first among all mineral types, reaching US$5.551 billion. Copper exploration expenditure ranked second among all mineral types, reaching US$3.201 billion, a year-on-year increase of 2.0%, accounting for 25.6% of the total exploration expenditure. The exploration expenditure for strategic emerging mineral resources such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel was slightly reduced, reaching US$1.697 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 0.4%, accounting for 13.6% of the total exploration expenditure.

In terms of regional structure, the global major solid mineral exploration investment continues to focus on Latin America, and the solid mineral exploration investment in most regions (countries) has decreased year-on-year. Among them, the solid mineral exploration investment in Latin America still maintains the highest level of exploration investment in all regions of the world, reaching US $3.22 billion, accounting for 25.8% of the global major solid mineral exploration investment, down by 4.8% year-on-year; Canada and Australia ranked second and third, with solid mineral exploration investment of US $2.47 billion and US $1.98 billion, down by 1.5% and 10.0% year-on-year, respectively; The solid mineral exploration investment in the Asia-Pacific region is the lowest, at US $330 million, accounting for only 2.6% of the global major solid mineral exploration investment, down by 12.2% year-on-year; In addition, the solid mineral exploration investment in Africa decreased by 1.3% year-on-year.

At the exploration stage, exploration investment has further focused on the mine development stage, and the exploration investment in the grassroots and pre-feasibility study/advanced development stages has decreased year-on-year. Among them, the exploration investment in the mine development stage has reached $4.98 billion, accounting for 39.9% of the global main solid exploration investment, ranking first; followed by the detailed investigation stage and the grassroots stage, with exploration investments of $4.71 billion and $2.79 billion, accounting for 37.8% and 22.4% of the global main solid exploration investment, respectively.

In terms of the sources of Funds, the major global investment in solid mineral exploration mainly comes from large and small mining companies. The combined investment of the two in solid mineral exploration amounts to 11.17 billion US dollars, accounting for nearly 90% of the global investment in major solid mineral exploration. Among them, the exploration investment of large mining companies was 6.09 billion US dollars, increasing by 0.7% year-on-year.
Exploration investment by small mining companies was 5.08 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 7.2%.
In addition, the solid mineral exploration investment of medium-sized mining companies decreased by 11.6% year-on-year, approaching the lowest level in nearly a decade.

02 Global drilling activities for major solid mineral resources continue to decline

In the past three years, the number of drilling projects for major solid mineral resources in the world has decreased year by year. In 2024, the total number of drilling projects and the total number of boreholes for major solid mineral resources in the world continued to decrease and remained at a low level, at 2,753 and 45,376, respectively, a year-on-year decrease of 19.9% and 15.3%. Among them, the number of drilling projects for strategic emerging mineral resources decreased by 36.9%, the largest decrease; followed by bulk solid mineral resources, the number of drilling projects decreased by 19.1%; and the number of drilling projects for precious metal mineral resources decreased by 12.8%, the smallest decrease. The proportion of the number of precious metal and bulk solid mineral resources drilling projects increased, and the proportion of the number of strategic emerging mineral resources drilling projects decreased. In 2024, the number of precious metal and bulk solid mineral resources drilling projects accounted for 58.8% and 22.6% of the total number of drilling projects implemented, respectively, an increase of 4.8% and 0.2% year-on-year; the proportion of gold drilling projects in the total number of drilling projects implemented was 52.7%, an increase of 4.1 percentage points compared to 2023, and continued to dominate. The proportion of strategic emerging mineral resources drilling projects in the total number of drilling projects implemented was 18.6%, a decrease of 5.0% year-on-year.

In 2024, affected by the periodic industry law of "high peak at the beginning of the year and low valley at the end of the year" for annual planning and resource allocation, the proportion of the number of monthly drilling projects for major solid mineral resources in the world to the total number of drilling projects completed throughout the year generally showed a fluctuating downward trend. Among them, the proportion of the number of monthly drilling projects for major solid mineral resources, strategic emerging mineral resources and gold to the total number of drilling projects completed throughout the year decreased significantly, and by December 2024, the proportions were reduced to 1.5%, 1.7% and 4.4%, respectively.

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