Many of the world’s junior miners are laying down their picks and shovels to start new ventures ranging from egg exporting to medical marijuana farming, as they as try to survive a crash in metals prices by shifting away from exploration.

Prices for copper, gold, iron ore, coal and almost every other metal have collapsed, stalling exploration work and hitting early stage miners particularly hard. These firms typically find the deposits that larger miners often then go on to acquire and develop into mines. But there’s scant demand for new sources of metal now.

Pivoting into other businesses has happened during mining funks in the past, including a spate of defections into the tech sector during the dotcom boom in the late 1990s. But now the concern is that when prices eventually do rebound, there will be fewer junior miners, and a reduced pool of new mine prospects.

“No one has any interest in a grassroots exploration project right now,” said Yari Nieken, chief executive of Chlormet Technologies, which has bought an e-cigarette company and has a licence to grow medical marijuana pending.

Canada made it legal to buy marijuana from licensed producers with a doctor’s prescription in 2014. Regulator Health Canada estimates that the Canadian medical marijuana industry will reach $1.3-billion in a decade.

Canada’s Century Iron Mines, whose mining projects are backed by two major Chinese companies, Minmetals and Wuhan Iron and Steel Corp., owns development stage iron ore assets in Eastern Canada. In July, Century started a new independent venture to distribute Australian eggs in Hong Kong, Macau and potentially mainland China.

Century aims to piggyback on Australia’s move from a reliance on mineral exports to shipping food and agricultural products to a growing Asian middle class.

“Due to the downturn in commodity prices, Australia’s moving its focus from mining to dining,” said Century CEO Sandy Chim. “We’re just an exploration company, but we have a solid balance sheet, and we feel we can also do the same.

“We see a good opportunity to start a small but meaningful food distribution business that can capitalize on our network in China.”

The shift to egg distribution will help create a cash-flow-generating business until iron ore prices recover, Mr. Chim said. While Century isn’t turning its back on mining, it’s considering buying food production assets, such as fisheries, while it waits for the sector to rebound.

This business shift by miners is most visible in Canada, home to the majority of the world’s publicly listed miners, but is also seen in other mining centres such as Australia and Brazil.

Century may be able to ride out the cycle, but some of its smaller peers both in Canada and overseas have begun to abandon the mining sector altogether, as it becomes increasingly difficult to raise financing.

In March, TSX Venture-listed Sabre Graphite bought DraftTeam, a website offering fantasy sports games. It has since changed its name to DraftTeam Daily Fantasy Sports Corp. Australia’s Erin Resources, which was previously exploring for gold in Senegal, has ventured into the medical marijuana business.

Supreme Pharmaceuticals Inc., formerly a copper and gold explorer with projects in Western Canada, is also seeking a license to grow medical marijuana in Canada and has bought a greenhouse facility in Ontario.

“With the downturn that the mining industry has suffered, I think the smart and innovative entrepreneurs in the sector are looking for other asset types that can rebuild businesses and restore lost value for shareholders,” said John Fowler, Supreme’s chief executive.