According to a report by , copper exploration鈥檚 total budgets increased 21% to just shy of $2.8 billion in 2022, the highest level since 2014.
The increase was driven by a strong recovery for the price of copper since hitting multi-year lows at the outset of the global pandemic.聽
The copper price has doubled from March 2020 when the bellwether metal briefly fell below $2/lbs ($4,400 a tonne) and prices are set to stay elevated given the rosy demand outlook through the end of the decade.
Last year saw two large copper mines start up operations 鈥� Anglo American鈥檚 60%-owned Quellaveco in Peru and Cukaru Peki (Timok) in Serbia, which is wholly-owned by China鈥檚 Zijin Mining. Teck Resources鈥� Quebrada Blanca in Chile will follow this year, while two other major projects, Udokan鈥檚 eponymous mine in Russia and Rio Tinto鈥檚 Oyu Tolgoi underground expansion, are currently under construction.聽聽
S&P Global sees a market surplus over the next three years (鈥�285kt this year) but after this bulge in additional tonnes coming online, the pipeline narrows substantially, with a nearly 400kt undersupply in 2026.聽
S&P Global points out that fatter exploration budgets over the past several years 鈥� most of which being spent in Latin America 鈥撀爃ave not led to a meaningful increase in the number of recent major discoveries:聽
鈥淲hile copper reserves and resources have increased by 50 million tonnes compared with our analysis last year, most of the increase came from assets discovered in the 1990s,鈥� say the authors.
