From the AFR today comes old news:
A growing number junior mining explorers have stopped exploring altogether, as falling commodity prices and difficult funding conditions hit the small end of Australia’s mining sector.
According to research provided exclusively to The Australian Financial Review by accounting firm BDO, the percentage of junior explorers in Australia’s 800-strong sector that have stopped exploring hit 10 per cent (or 85 companies) in the March quarter, up from 7 per cent (or 71 companies) in the June quarter of 2013.
The data also shows that the median spend on exploration during the March quarter dropped 27 per cent from the June quarter in 2013, to $178,000.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has tracked the crash all along Mineral & Petroleum Exploration data for the March quarter revealed a sharp fall in mineral exploration expenditure, but a rebound in petroleum exploration expenditure.
Nationally, expenditure on minerals exploration fell by a seasonally-adjusted $48.9 million (-9.2%) over the March quarter. The fall was driven by Western Australia, where exploration expenditure fell by $58.8 million (-19.6%):
The various components, presented below in non-seasonally adjusted raw terms, fell by a larger amount, down by $139.4 million or 25%. Iron ore exploration expenditure fell by $69 million (-38%), gold exploration expenditure fell by $35 million (-30%), selected base metals exploration expenditure fell by $12 million (-16%), “All others” fell by $19 million (-29%), and coal by $5 million (-4%).
By contrast, petroleum exploration expenditure rebounded by a seasonally-adjusted 111 million (+11%) to $1,139.5 million in the March quarter, with Western Australia accounting for 66% of total expenditure (see next chart).
I would not be at all surprised to see the bulks fall close to zero.
