According to S&P Global Market Intelligence's statistics on 2,235 mining companies, the global exploration budget for non-ferrous metals in 2023 fell from $13.1 billion in 2022 to $12.8 billion, a decline of 3%.
The exploration trend of different mineral species is differentiated. The gold exploration budget was $5.9 billion, the lowest in three years, down $1.1 billion.
Budgets for metals related to clean energy and electrification, such as copper, lithium and nickel, have risen sharply. In particular, the exploration budget for lithium reached $829.6 million, an increase of 78% over the previous year, ranking third among all minerals.
From the exploration stage, the proportion of green space exploration budget was 23.4%, a new low. The latter and mine exploration budgets accounted for 38.3% each.
