The survey found that explorers were exploring less and less each year due to ongoing commodity price woes, lack of funding, regulatory challenges, and low employment outlook. However, a there was a growing level of collaboration across the broader industry, mainly between miners and service companies, as industry participants looked for ways to save money. "To grow value in an extended period of market downturn it is imperative that junior miners maximise every cent of expenditure and be ever more creative in structuring solutions to fund and develop their projects," Ms Stiles said. The survey found that 50 per cent of junior miners were planning a fund raising within six months and 29 per cent had a cash balance of less than $500,000. As a consequence, competition for capital was extreme and failure was largely expected, with increased business consolidations and exits from the resources sector through back door listings, according to JUMEX 2015.