Image courtesy of DLP Resources

PDAC, the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada, is the go-to global event for junior exploration companies, so the Peruvian delegation paid close attention to the speech by Jorge Montero Cornejo, the minister of Mines and Energy, when he announced that Peru's exploration project portfolio had grown from US$644 million in 2024 to US$1.03 billion in 2025. A remarkable increase, indeed. Now, that pipeline has yet to materialize. How much of that has actually translated into real exploration activity so far? 

In 2024, Peruvian exploration budgets jumped by over 28%, totaling US$568 million, versus US$443 million in 2023. That makes 2024's exploration investment the highest since 2014. With just 0.3% of Peru's territory being explored, the highest exploration investment in a decade, and a metals market predicted to grow rapidly, the question is: can a rising tide float all boats? As Montero Cornejo said to GBR: "We are at a key moment. Now is the time to optimize processes and make strategic decisions to take advantage of the momentum." 

More than working bees 

In 2024, greenfield exploration budgets fell 8% to an all-time low share of total nonferrous exploration expenditure, continuing their downward trend since 2001. S&P reports that market conditions and risk aversion have pushed budgets towards expanding preexisting resources, where infrastructure and prior study make for low-cost if lower-return options. 

For juniors, though, contributing 47% of greenfield and 70% of late-stage exploration globally, those lower-risk options often simply do not exist, leaving them more exposed to negative markets and limited liquidity. Chris Buncic, president and CEO of Condor Resources, a junior company with 20 years of experience discovering and developing a polymetallic portfolio of mine prospects in Peru, explained: "Majors are not allocating many resources to greenfield exploration, so junior exploration is critical." 

Condor, in transition from a project generator to a traditional explorer model, has diversified its income across shareholder investments, joint venture and option agreements, and sales from its portfolio so that Condor ultimately relies on advancing the projects to sustain the company. At the company's flagship Pucamayo project, an epithermal gold target in Ica, a DIA permit to start on a second phase of drilling has been a frustratingly long process for Buncic. "There needs to be a concerted effort to help companies that lack the resources of the largest players," he argued – for the long-term benefit of the sector at large. 

Ian Gendall, president and CEO of DLP Resources, also recognized the indispensable role juniors have played in exploration: "In the past decade, only about 4 million t of new copper supply have been added through discoveries," he explained, adding: "Juniors, however, have been doing most of the exploration work, and majors are relying on us to help fill their supply gaps." 

DLP's Aurora project, sitting in the underexplored Miocene sub-Andean belt, has shown high-grade results in its large porphyry system – up to 0.6-0.8% copper equivalent for 200-300 m, alongside 0.1% to 0.3% molybdenum. Gendall said this puts Aurora among the highest-grade known molybdenum deposits on Earth – highlighting that this is an especially unusual trait for a South American asset. In further metallurgical studies, high recovery rates of 86-96% for copper, molybdenum and silver were also confirmed. 

In February 2025, DLP announced its maiden mineral resource with 1 billion t of inferred mineral resources. Consequently, as the project moves towards a PEA and PFS, it presents a well-developed and highly valuable asset for senior miners. "We believe Aurora is an interesting opportunity for major players, potentially bridging the gap between exploration and large-scale development," said Gendall. 

Meanwhile, highlighting the senior acquisition potential of Forte Minerals' most recent development asset, Patrick Elliott, president and CEO, commented on the Alto Ruri gold project: "Prospects like this are incredibly hard to find. It is the type of property juniors look for to build into eventual takeovers by major gold companies." 

Discussing Forte's value-generating methodology, Elliott explained that downturns in the mining industry cause major companies to reduce expenditure, relinquishing exploration assets quickly and refocusing on low-risk targets. In such periods, he said: "Large companies focus on optimizing production, or expanding brownfield exploration around their existing operations, so early-stage exploration is limited." 

Forte takes advantage of this by picking up promising assets during those slow periods, when prices are low. For Elliott, all of this is a game of great patience: "Assembling assets like ours and advancing them to this status takes an entire mining cycle to execute," he said. 

It is through this methodology that the company has brought its copper-gold portfolio across Peru, including Miscanthus, Pucarini and Esperanza, to drill-ready, DIA-approved status – the type of projects that mid-tier and major companies may look to acquire as demand continues to rise. 

It appears, too, that demand is indeed returning. Even with his nearly two decades in mining and precious metals mergers and acquisitions (M&A), Dan Symons was still struck by the extent of activity on his arrival to the copper market as president and CEO of C3 Metals: "The world's biggest copper producers are doing due diligence all the way down to early-stage explorers, examining M&A and joint venture opportunities," he explained. 

Senior mining companies, Symons suggested, are looking beyond developing companies with known deposits, into higher-risk, earlier-stage prospects, seeking to fill their pipelines with copper prospects in anticipation of future demand. "Majors are looking more long-term, with higher potential for discovery. I think we will only see more M&A over the coming years," he predicted.

Across its two Peruvian portfolio projects, Jasperoide and Khaleesi, a pair of porphyry-skarn copper-gold projects in Cusco, and two in Jamaica, Symons explained that C3's approach is to test and develop 'low-hanging fruit,' geologically speaking. Then, when projects reach higher levels of capital intensity or technical complexity, the company seeks to move forward with partnerships or divestments. 

BHP is one of the tier-one producers paying attention to this gap mentioned by some junior companies. Thus, it launched BHP Xplor, an accelerator program to support early-stage projects with funding and technical support. In Peru, Firetail Resources was one of the eight companies selected for the BHP Xplor 2025 Accelerated Exploration Program. "Being selected for the BHP Xplor 2025 Accelerated Exploration Program is an excellent validation for our Picha project. They are helping us operate better as a company while advancing the project, and the opportunities and networks we have by being involved in the program are enormous," commented Glenn Poole, managing director at Firetail, which has received an equity-free grant of around US$500,000. 

Picha is a coper-silver project located on the border of Moquegua and Puno. It was drilled in 2023 and 2024, but Poole shared that they want to focus on targeting porphyry and intrusive-style anomalies. 

Copper 

Over 60% of the world's copper production arises from operations focused on porphyry systems. Typically enormous in size, porphyries can offer vast quantities of copper, as well as valuable secondary commodities such as gold, silver and molybdenum. It is not uncommon for such systems to exceed 1 billion t of ore. That scale offers certain key advantages: economies of scale can afford low operating costs per unit of production, and mine lifecycles can stretch to over 100 years. 

Peru's copper mining industry, like that of the world at large, primarily centers itself on porphyries, including several of the country's largest projects like Cerro Verde, Las Bambas and Toquepala. Across Miocene, Eocene-Oligocene and Paleocene belts, Peru's known porphyry network stretches along its full length, north to south. Alongside other mineralization systems, like sediment-hosted and skarn deposits, Peru's copper reserves combine to 12% of the global total – surpassed only by neighboring Chile, the geology of which is also dominated by porphyries. 

For junior miners, then, copper porphyry systems clearly offer the best potential for massive discoveries. With the vast majority of Peru's national territory still unexplored, and the presence of porphyries already proven throughout the country, the search for the next major prospect is well underway. 

"We are well advanced, with just a few things that needed fixing. Cañariaco is a resource capable of producing 150,000 to 160,000 t/y of copper. There are not many that have that potential, and fewer still with the major backing we already have," said Giulio Bonifacio, executive chair and CEO at Alta Copper. 

Alta Copper is a Vancouver-based exploration company that has published a PEA for its Cañariaco porphyry-copper project in 2024: "At our base price of US$4, the PEA illustrates an after-tax NPV of US$2.3 billion and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 24% - fantastic for a big project. Every US$0.25 increase in the copper price over that base increases that NPV by US$425 million. At current copper prices of US$5, the after-tax NPV increases to US$4 billion with further opportunities to reduce the current tax impact," commented Bonifacio, who added that the company will drill once again in Q3 2025 and move to feasibility and an EIA by early 2026. 

Camino Corporation's portfolio includes two copper porphyry projects, newly acquired Puquios in Chile and Maria Cecilia in Peru, and its Los Chapitos iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) project in Peru. President and CEO, Jay Chmelauskas, is seeking to take advantage of a healthy copper market by advancing as fast as possible to production: "The average time to build a mine is around 17 years – at Puquios, we are looking to build a copper-producing business in the next several years." 

Puquios is shovel ready, with a new PFS expected in Q1 2025. "It is a good-size mine for us to start our production profile," reckons Chmelauskas. 

Camino's 50% joint venture partner Nittetsu Mining will take charge of the construction and operation of the mine. The project's timing, Chmelauskas stressed, is critical: "With copper prices on the way up, the market is placing high value on developers and producers, so production is our main focus for 2025." 

Element 29 Resources is also placing its sights firmly on copper. At its flagship project, Elida, a phase three drill program has infilled existing resources, improved grades (up to 0.56 g/t copper, 0.4 g/t molybdenum, and 3.49 g/t silver), and moved beyond previous pit-constrained estimates for its porphyry system. For CEO Richard Osmond, a lack of gold in Elida's mineralization is a major advantage for the project: "Gold in porphyries tends to imply arsenic content, which makes recovering copper more challenging – it can as much as double your OpEx," he explained. 

Elida enjoys excellent access to infrastructure, including the new Chancay mega-port. Osmond was effusive about Peru's copper potential, citing the country's trade agreements with the US and Canada, the robustness of its wider mining industry, and the unexplored opportunities in the country as key pull factors for explorers: "Companies go around the world looking for big porphyry copper projects, but they always come back to Peru." 

Yet, while the scale of porphyry systems is certainly an opportunity, it can present difficulties for exploration and development. Establishing the size and mineralization of such enormous resources, especially from grassroots, is typically time consuming and costly. It requires large-scale mapping, sampling and drilling, with a resultant upscaling of permitting and social access requirements – often stretching exploration timelines to over a decade. For Ian Gendall, president and CEO of DLP Resources, the impressive size of the Aurora project's copper-molybdenum porphyry project illustrates these hurdles, as well as opportunities for partnership as the project moves ahead. "Aurora's scale demands significant financing, which can be challenging for a junior company. Raising US$30-40 million introduces substantial dilution, making strategic partnerships crucial," he said. 

Solis Minerals is a company that has recently raised A$4.5 million (around US$2.5 million), which will be enough to fully-fund the upcoming 7,500 m drilling campaign in two of its assets: Chancho al Palo (in April, targeting 2,500 m) and Ilo Este (in late April or early May, targeting 5,000 m). "Being in a strong cash position, we were delighted to have recently received the permit to commence drilling at the Chancho al Palo target, and we expect the approval for drilling the Ilo Este target imminently," added Mitch Thomas, CEO. 

Bruce Smith, president and CEO at Radius Gold, also shared that exploration is becoming harder: "Exploration always gets more difficult as the easy and outcropping deposits have been discovered, and now we are looking for more complex and hidden deposits. Getting to these complex deposits requires deeper drilling and more technology, which is more capital-intensive," he commented. 

Radius Gold is a new player in Peru. In mid-2024, it came across the Tierra Roja copper project in southern Peru and announced an option agreement to acquire it by September. "Signing an option agreement on Tierra Roja was a great deal as it allows Radius to start drilling without too much expense, and our interests are aligned with our local partners in making a significant discovery," added Smith. 

Precious metals 

In a commodity market seeing volatile copper prices, gold has trended upwards to new all-time highs. Some juniors may be drawn towards precious metal exploration, where scales are smaller and timelines shorter. For Andrew Thomson, president and CEO of Palamina, an explorer focused on developing a portfolio of gold projects in the lesser-explored Puno Orogenic Gold Belt, the time-scale of porphyry copper exploration is simply too long: "There are many exploration companies out there chasing porphyry copper deposits that take decades to get to production," he said. 

At Palamina's Usicayos gold project, scout drill programs have returned high-grade intercepts – up to 24 g/t gold over 0.5 m, and 0.75 g/t over 56 m. Thomson, naturally, was bullish on gold exploration: "With gold prices at all-time highs, majors are beginning to fund juniors with large-footprint early-stage projects." 

He also predicted that the silver market, which he sees as undersupplied in the face of coming demand from the global push for electrification, is likely to rise alongside gold. 

James Tworek, CEO of Element79 Gold, explained how the company is moving its Lucero project in Arequipa towards small-scale gold production while continuing to explore its high-grade development opportunity. Describing Lucero's geological profile, Tworek shared: "Lucero is an exceptionally high-grade asset: past production rates of 150 t/d yielded between 20-40,000 oz/y AuEq  – producing around 14 g/t gold, and 373 g/t silver." 

Having previously focused on projects in Nevada and Canada, Element79's move to Peru in 2022 came as the company sought to create a revenue-generating mining business. In a strong contemporary gold market, dry-stacked tailings on the Lucero site from historic production by former owner Buenaventura also offer a possible avenue for production. "There are approximately 50,000 oz of recoverable gold equivalent sitting in these tailings piles, which stands as a solid source of potential revenue over the coming 15-20 years," Tworek explained, with the company planning to build a facility on site to process the piles in the near-term, pending resource estimates and economic assessments. 

Permitting 

A particular point of pain for junior miners in Peru in recent years has been the country's permitting timelines. For junior explorers, navigating the 'red tape' of permitting can prove to be costly, with any delay stretching tight budgets ever thinner and potentially causing investor interest to wane. 

Amongst its top-10 risks and opportunities for global miners in 2025, EY cited the lengthening of timelines caused by regulatory red tape as a key blockage in the pipeline of new projects. To illustrate, the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) widely-reported reeling-in of Peru's long-held place as the world's number-two copper producer has been linked to Peru's more stringent and, ultimately, time-consuming permitting regime. The time for a project to advance from discovery to production in Peru at marginally below the global average of 23 years is around 50% longer than the DRC's 15 years. For junior miners, much of whose work at the early stage of a project's life-cycle is fundamentally shaped by permitting processes, that difference could be critical to a choice between entering one jurisdiction or another. 

While acknowledging that Peru's permitting timelines have improved in recent times, Chris Buncic from Condor Resources said: "While thoroughness is greatly appreciated, when a 30-day timeline turns into months due to tangential follow-up questions, that is a problem." 

Peru's government has been working in recent years to streamline permitting timelines via a range of methods. Lars Dahlenborg, president of Hannan Metals, told us that he has observed tangible improvements in permitting speeds. At Valiente, a vast 1,100 km2 holding across a newly uncovered Miocene porphyry belt in central-eastern Peru, Hannan recently attained a DIA in November 2024 after less than 12 months of processing, whereas its previous DIA for the San Martin project took nearly 15 months until its approval in January 2024. Dahlenborg said: "This improvement is huge, especially for a junior explorer, as it allows us to get to the site and start testing our ideas more quickly." 

Dan Symons from C3 Metals has seen a marked improvement too. He said: "The pendulum has been swinging back the right way – I commend everything the Peruvian government has been doing to make that happen… The permitting process for Khaleesi, where we hope a DIA will be in place by H2 2025, is moving tremendously faster than for Jasperoide just a few years ago." 

However, some things require patience. At Coppernico Metals' Sombrero copper-gold skarn-porphyry project, the project's social access agreement and drill permits took around nine years to realize, and involved extensive agricultural programs and job creation work. Ivan Bebek, CEO, said: "Building community relationships is something you cannot speed up, and it will pay dividends once we make our discovery." 
Concerning the environmental permitting process Bebek nevertheless still recognized room for improvement: "Exploration does not involve heavy use of chemicals, but juniors have been treated as if they are fully operating mines." 

As such, Bebek was grateful for Coppernico's robust finances, having raised C$19.4 million in a financing round in 2024 – including C$8.8 million in backing from Teck Resources – meaning the company can weather the time necessary for permitting. Coppernico is advancing Sombrero's maiden drill program, yielding high-grade results, including an intercept of 0.5% copper for 20 m. Bebek hopes to expand drilling at the project, growing to a larger area based on its highest-grade vectoring and permitting up to 200 drill pads by the end of 2025.