Latin America was the most popular exploration destination during 2003 followed by Canada, Africa and then Australia. Australia has been in second place since 19994 and was surpassed by Canada and South Africa in 2002. In US dollar terms Canada ($150m) andSouth Africa ($120m) experienced the largest budget increases in 2003 and the USA ($120m) and the Pacific/South East Asia region ($28m) experienced the smallest.

In commodity terms gold exploration dropped 74% from almost $3 billion in 1997 to an estimated $800 million in 2002. In 2003 gold allocations rose by 34% to just over $1 billion, of this the major gold producers account 50% of all major company spending on gold.

Base metal allocations declined steadily from 1997 to 2002 before rising by14% to $585 million n 2003 this was due to an increased interest in copper and nickel prospects. Zinc exploration is still in decline.