Global mining capex spend: winners and losers

Report summary

After peaking in 2012 at US$130 billion, Wood Mackenzie's estimate of global corporate capital expenditure across the main mining and metals commodities has slumped by more than 60%, to  only US$48 billion in 2016. Iron ore and coal have seen the biggest reductions and the outlook for the bulks remains very subdued out to 2019. But future capital investment in copper and gold has the potential to rebound strongly, with combined expenditure from new copper and gold projects in 2019 of US$44 billion –  a similar level to the 2012 high. Zinc and lead also shows a rise in expenditure in 2018-19, flowing from new projects being slated on the back of a supply shortage and improved price outlook. More than half of potential 2019 global mining capex in our dataset comes from just five countries: Chile, the US , Canada, Australia and Peru.