Major new copper discoveries are becoming scarcer globally, with older deposits carrying the bulk of the reserve growth over the last decade as the industry trends away from early-stage exploration, according to
While the total copper volume grew year-on-year by 4%, or 61 million tonnes, most of the increase was attributed to older discoveries, with deposits found during the 1990s accounting for 70%, or 43 million tonnes, of the growth, S&P’s analysis found. Exacerbating the issue, copper exploration budgets have remained well below decade-ago levels despite surging copper prices, S&P adds. While the global exploration budget climbed 12% in 2023, this was still 34% lower than the peak of 2012, it estimates.
“Until there is a reversal in exploration trends, the trend of fewer significant discoveries is likely to persist,” DeCoff said, also adding that any new major discovery “will most certainly not match the 1990s in size or abundance.”Latin America remains by far the biggest hunting ground for copper, accounting for 55.6%, or 730.9 million tonnes, of the discovered copper from S&P’s dataset. Exploration in the region has mostly been concentrated in Chile and Peru, which combined for 573.