10MA Y200801195967 10MA Y200801195652 A ccording to MEG in 2007 junior mining company exploration budgets rose to US53 billion or a US16 billion yearoveryear increase and accounted for approximately 53 of the 2007 exploration budget total In 2006 junior mining companies exploration budgets were US37 billion or 51 of the total exploration expenditures in that year which was the first year that junior mining companies accounted for more than half of the annual total budget of mining companies globally Dependent upon the availability of finance junior mining companies can have extensive exploration budgets As evidence of this NR C reported that 25 junior mining companies operating in Canada each had exploration budgets in excess of 10 million as compared to a total of 26 intermediate mining companies and major mining companies with budgets over that threshold A ccording to MEG and as illustrated in the charts below Canada and L atin America continue to be the two largest regions for exploration expenditures accounting for approximately 43 or approximately US43 billion of worldwide exploration expenditures in 2007 Allocations by target have increased across the range of commodities surveyed by MEG Gold continues to receive the greatest focus with 42 of exploration expenditures spent on gold projects and base metals projects receiving 36 of exploration expenditures W orldwide Exploration Budgets W orldwide Exploration Budgets by R egion 2007 by T arget 2007 Other 9 PGM 3 Diamonds 10 Base Metals 36 Gold 42 Canada 19 Australia 12 United States 7 P e r u 5 South Africa 4 Me xico 6 Russia 6 Brazil 3 China 3 Others 31 Source MEG Canadian based businesses continue to play a significant role in minerals exploration and development globally A ccording to the NR C in 2007 Canadian domiciled companies undertook 45 billion or 45 of the total global exploration expenditures A ustralian domiciled companies were the second most active representing spending of 16 billion R ecent growth in mineral exploration expenditures has resulted in part from increased demand for raw materials from emerging economies including Brazil R ussia India and China collectively referred to as BRIC and the low supply of metals and mineral reserves due to prolonged weakened investment worldwide in exploration attributable to low commodity prices from 1998 to 2002 The combination of the reserves replacement requirements of major mining companies and intermediate mining companies and a wellfunded junior mining company sector are expected to continue to drive exploration spending upward in 2008 The magnitude of the yearonyear increase however relies on metal prices and rising exploration costs Mineral Drilling Services Market Size Data from the NR C suggests that drilling services made up 12 billion or 47 of the total 26 billion of mineral exploration and deposit appraisal expenditures across all commodities undertaken in Canada in 2007 In Canada this related to approximately 66 million total metres drilled The following graph depicts the amount of exploration drilling and deposit drilling undertaken in Canada between 1997 and 2006 23