Mining companies are tightening their belts in unprecedented fashion across the entire mining world. The giants and the minnows are cutting costs, reducing capital expenditure and dropping the word ‘exploration’ right out of their vocabularies. Suddenly the two words “non core” are appearing as companies distance themselves from potentially lossmaking assets. This is all being done against the background of share prices declining, headline earnings plunging, commodity prices being decimated and the word ‘dividend’ also disappearing. The bottom simply has to be reached at some stage, but nobody knows when.