Junior mining company financial outlook still bearish – MRG Survey – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – September 26, 2013)

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A Mining Recruitment Group survey revealed that mining executives still think gold will shine the brightest in terms of the great commodities gains over the next three years.

RENO (MINEWEB) – Mining executives surveyed by the Mining Recruitment Group still think the next six to 12 months will be bleak although fewer now have a bearish view as to the overall strength of the mining industry over the short term.

Of the 162 responses gathered for the MRG Mining Survey for the fourth-quarter of this year, executives seem to be getting more upbeat about the longer term (three-year view) of the mining sector. The survey found that 74% of executives hold a bullish outlook, compared to 64% of those surveyed for the third quarter.

“With the remaining executives holding a neutral outlook over a 3-year time-frame it is evident that in the minds’ eye of executives the fundamentals of the sector are still very much intact,” said Andrew Pollard, MRG president. Gold still glitters for 74% of those surveyed as executives think the commodity will see the greatest gains over the next three years, followed by 64% who expect to see a massive appreciation in copper, while silver rounded out the top three at 53%.

Commodities which executives view as having the highest likelihood of depreciating in value over the next three years are nickel, ranked highest by 40% of respondents, followed by zinc by 36% of the executives, and iron ore with 31% of the vote. “Uranium has fallen off since our last polling, down from 53% in our last polling to 33%,” Pollard observed.

When asked how current market conditions have affected their short-term business outlook, 42% of those surveyed said they are now in “pure survival mode.” However, these findings are segmented as 71% of executives of companies under $10 million market cap said they were in survival mode, while only 8% of executives of companies over $50 million in market cap indicated they too were in survival mode.

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