Gold Exploration Spending to Shrink by $800 Million

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The latest report published by S&P Global Market Intelligence predicts that 2020 will turn out to be the worst year in nearly 15 years for global exploration spending. This is despite rallying gold price, which are currently at all-time peaks.

The industry wide outlays for exploration are expected to witness 29% year-on-year decline from $9.3 billion in 2019 to $6.6 billion in 2020. The total money spent on drilling gold is likely to decline by almost $800 million during the current year.

The gold exploration activities by junior miners will continue to remain under pressure during the rest of the year, said Chris Galbraith, mining and metals analyst, S&P Global. The junior mining companies raised $781 million in Q1 2020, significantly down by almost 50% from the total financing of $1.54 billion in Q4 last year.

The global gold production, which recorded its first decline in more than a decade in 2019, is expected to report another year of lowered production in 2020. This is mainly due to prolonged mine shutdowns on account of lockdowns imposed by various countries across the world to arrest the spread of Covid-19 pandemic. The production from Latin America and South Africa are likely to be impacted the most.

The gold production is expected to return to positive growth in 2021, said S&P Global research report.

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