Keynote presentation at PDAC 2026 3rd March 2026, Toronto
Click on the following link to download the presentation ….
Brownfield Exploration PDAC 2026.pdf Download
Key Observations are:
- Over the last decade, the rate of finding new copper deposits has halved. This is due to a ~60% fall in funding grassroots exploration. This raises concerns about a looming shortage of metal.
- Over the last 15 years (2010-2024), exploration at existing mines and prefeas/feas projects delivered 4x as much copper metal as greenfield discoveries.
- As a result, even after deducting 296 Mt of mine production total copper resources grew by 946 Mt Cu. …. so the world is not running out of copper !
- Unfortunately, the extra metal found at existing operations has not led to increased metal output – just a longer mine life. Nevertheless there are some exceptions to this rule.
- New mines are needed to meet the increased demand – these will come from existing late-stage projects and new grassroots discoveries.
- However, it is getting progressively harder and slower to convert a discovery into a mine. Currently half of all copper projects at the prefeas/feas stage are stalled … due to poor economics and social & environment issues.
- The end result is that there is still a vital need to fund grassroots exploration for copper.
In summary … Brownfield and mine-site exploration is vitally important, but under-appreciated. Its main role is to sustain (but generally not really grow) existing operations.
Notwithstanding this, extending mine lives through brownfield exploration gives industry breathing time to find new deposits.
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