A new report says the last decade has been dismal for new copper discoveries, with under 1M tonnes found since 2015.
Only 16 significant copper deposits have been discovered globally in the past decade and just one since 2015 says S&P Global Market Intelligence. The 16 deposits contain a paltry 8%, or 81.3 million tonnes, of all copper contained in discoveries since 1990.
“While there is still an abundance of undeveloped discoveries, most are smaller or low grade, with relatively few high-quality assets available for development,” S&P Global’s Kevin Murphy says.
The bulk of the major discoveries made since 1990 are not yet in production. “Only 16 of these undeveloped assets, however, have more than 10 Mt of copper in reserves and resources, enough to support a large copper mine over a mine life of at least 20 years, and only five of the 16 have a copper grade over 1%.”
The lack of major discoveries is mostly the result of less ‘frontier’ exploration. Since the 1990s, the industry has halved its share of copper budgets devoted to ‘grassroots’ exploration, with the 36% allocated in 2019 near the low of 32% set in 2009.
“Companies are focusing more on established assets: juniors at projects with established resources and majors at and around their mine sites. The probability of finding new major discoveries at such projects is lower than at riskier, early-stage prospects,” Mr Murphy explained.