{"id":59292,"date":"2026-04-16T10:04:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T07:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/news\/the-share-of-juniors-in-geological-exploration-has-reached-a-historical-maximum\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T10:04:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T07:04:21","slug":"the-share-of-juniors-in-geological-exploration-has-reached-a-historical-maximum","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/en\/news\/the-share-of-juniors-in-geological-exploration-has-reached-a-historical-maximum\/","title":{"rendered":"The share of juniors in geological exploration has reached a historical maximum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the MINEX Far East forum in Magadan, the head of the Federal Agency for Subsoil Use, Oleg Kazanov, presented a report on the role of small geological exploration companies &#8211; the so-called juniors. He noted that it is this segment that today is becoming the main driver of growth in financing of exploration work in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a data-id=\"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/junior-mining-investment-russia\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/junior-mining-investment-russia\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Juniors<\/a> refers to subsoil users who hold only exploration licenses and are not part of the structure of large mining corporations. According to Casanova, in 2025, subsoil users allocated 30% more money for geological exploration of solid minerals than in 2024. At the same time, exploration itself became more expensive by 34%. Taking a long-term view, total investment has increased by 227% since 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the same time, the number of issued licenses is growing. In 2010 there were just over 4 thousand, in 2018 &#8211; about 6.1 thousand, and by 2025 the number of licenses reached 11,494. More than half of them (6,468) were issued on the so-called application principle &#8211; when the site is vacant and does not have approved reserves, the right to operate is granted simply upon filing an application, without an auction.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is this simplified procedure that stimulates the growth in the number of juniors. In 2025, 58% of all licenses were received by small companies. And, more importantly, financing of geological exploration by juniors also reached a new historical maximum: their share in total expenses reached 42%, which in monetary terms amounts to 12.3 billion rubles. For comparison: in 2016 this figure was only 4%.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thus, <a data-id=\"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/chto-meshaet-otkryvat-novye-mestorozhdeniya\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/chto-meshaet-otkryvat-novye-mestorozhdeniya\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">small exploration companies<\/a> have become a significant force capable of conducting prospecting work without the participation of large capital. Easier access to licenses and growing investment set the stage for new discoveries in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Source: Rosnedra<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Image: Rosnedra<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the MINEX Far East forum in Magadan, the head of the Federal Agency for Subsoil Use, Oleg Kazanov, presented a report on the role of small geological exploration companies &#8211; the so-called juniors. He noted that it is this segment that today is becoming the main driver of growth in financing of exploration work in th<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":54914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"The share of juniors in geological exploration has reached a historical maximum","_seopress_titles_desc":"The head of Rosnedra Oleg Kazanov reported an increase in the share of small companies in geological exploration to 42%. Find out how the statement principle has changed the market.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[14,372],"class_list":["post-59292","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","category-geologorazvedka","tag-geologorazvedka","tag-investiczii-v-razvedku-i-dobychu"],"acf":[],"pbg_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/finansirovanie-geologorazvedki.webp",1280,960,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/finansirovanie-geologorazvedki-150x113.webp",150,113,true],"medium":["https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/finansirovanie-geologorazvedki-300x225.webp",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/finansirovanie-geologorazvedki-768x576.webp",768,576,true],"large":["https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/finansirovanie-geologorazvedki-1024x768.webp",1024,768,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/finansirovanie-geologorazvedki.webp",1280,960,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/finansirovanie-geologorazvedki.webp",1280,960,false],"bricks_large_16x9":["https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/finansirovanie-geologorazvedki-1200x675.webp",1200,675,true],"bricks_large":["https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/finansirovanie-geologorazvedki-1200x900.webp",1200,900,true],"bricks_large_square":["https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/finansirovanie-geologorazvedki-1200x960.webp",1200,960,true],"bricks_medium":["https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/finansirovanie-geologorazvedki-600x450.webp",600,450,true],"bricks_medium_square":["https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/finansirovanie-geologorazvedki-600x600.webp",600,600,true]},"pbg_author_info":{"display_name":"Yulia Frolova","author_link":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/en\/author\/giulia-nikolaevna\/","author_img":false},"pbg_comment_info":" No Comments","pbg_excerpt":"At the MINEX Far East forum in Magadan, the head of the Federal Agency for Subsoil Use, Oleg Kazanov, presented a report on the role of small geological exploration companies - the so-called juniors. He noted that it is this segment that today is becoming the main driver of growth in financing of exploration work&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/59292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/59292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geoconversation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}