By James Thomson
Australian Financial Review
A growing number junior mining explorers have stopped exploring altogether, as falling commodity prices and difficult funding conditions hit the small end of Australia’s mining sector.
According to research provided exclusively to The Australian Financial Review by accounting firm BDO, the percentage of junior explorers in Australia’s 800-strong sector that have stopped exploring hit 10 per cent (or 85 companies) in the March quarter, up from 7 per cent (or 71 companies) in the June quarter of 2013.
The data also shows that the median spend on exploration during the March quarter dropped 27 per cent from the June quarter in 2013, to $178,000.