Reduction comes despite surge in spending on search for metals crucial to energy transition since 2020
The world’s biggest mining groups have cut back spending on exploration in the past two years as inflation, higher interest rates and lower commodity prices have stalled the market. That has come in spite of a flurry of spending this decade on the search for copper and lithium, metals crucial for the energy transition.
Total exploration spending fell for the second consecutive year in 2024, sliding 6 per cent to $12.5bn, after rising in the years following the pandemic, according to S&P Capital IQ. Yet investment in lithium exploration has risen every year since 2020, and had jumped 360 per cent to $1.1bn in 2024 compared with four years previously.
Spending on the search for copper has risen by half over the same time period, although the $3.2bn investment in 2024 was marginally lower than the year before. Demand for battery and base metals, which are used in a broad range of products including copper wiring and electric car batteries, is expected to jump over the next decade.
For the rest of this article: https://www.ft.com/content/7e3eec00-d140-45ef-aa08-41983ca0d793