6 November 2015
(Yellowknife, NT – November 6, 2015) Revised Federal government projections for 2015 mineral exploration and deposit appraisal spending are ‘up’ in Nunavut and down in Yukon and the Northwest Territories. Natural Resources Canada’s (NRCan) latest semi-annual report Exploration and Deposit Appraisal Expenditures, by Province and Territory provides the following spending intentions
for 2015:
The majority of spending in the NWT in 2015 is expected to be for diamonds and in Nunavut on precious metals. Junior companies in the NWT are projected to dominate exploration spending at 57% of the 2015 total, while in Nunavut the seniors are expected to spend the majority at 60% of the total exploration with senior companies spending the majority. In the NWT, 56% of the spending is projected to be on grassroots exploration, the remainder on deposit appraisal. In Nunavut, 39% of the spending is projected to be on grassroots exploration, with the majority on deposit appraisal.
As a share of projected Canadian investment, Nunavut remains in fifth place, the Yukon remains in sixth place, and the NWT rises to seventh place.
NRCan projects that total Canadian exploration and deposit appraisal expenditures for 2015 will be $1,879.8 million, a decrease of 7% from $2,017.4 million for 2014.
Charts for northern Canada’s historical and projected performance are attached as a Backgrounder to this release. NRCan’s data can be downloaded by clicking here.