Explorer Quarterly Cash Update: March 2024 quarter
Explorer Quarterly Cash Update: March 2024 quarter
Since 2014, BDO’s Natural Resources team has compiled a quarterly report that delivers insights on the cash position of ASX-listed exploration companies.
Key findings
Our latest edition reveals that exploration expenditure fell to a two-year low during the March 2024 quarter, following the near-record billion-dollar spend witnessed in the previous quarter.
Notably, financing cash inflows declined 39 per cent from the previous quarter to $1.62 billion. While the March quarter is often a quiet period for capital markets, looming market uncertainty has likely also contributed to a softening.
This recent volatility can be attributed to capital markets' adverse reaction to interest rate rises and is likely compounded by elevated inflation and uncertainty resulting from broader macroeconomic and geopolitical events.
Investors flock to uranium
Uranium has emerged as the leader in our Fund Finder analysis (explorers who raise more than $10 million in a quarter) after a two-year battle for the top spot between lithium and gold. Our data reveals that uranium explorers are thriving, fuelled by a rich flow of capital driven by market factors, resulting in uranium prices doubling within a year.
As Australia navigates its stance on nuclear energy, the international demand for uranium paints a dynamic outlook for the industry’s future, with nuclear energy seeming to have an important role as a portfolio energy source in the energy transition.