https://www.miningweekly.com

Australia exploration expenditure up by nearly a quarter last year

Australia exploration expenditure up by nearly a quarter last year

Photo by Bloomberg

6th March 2019

By: Esmarie Iannucci

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor: Australasia

     

Font size: - +

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Exploration expenditure across Australia rose by 24% in 2018, to A$2.2-billion, new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has shown.

The data show that gold attracted the lion’s share of exploration spend, with nearly 41%, or A$891-million, of exploration spend spent on gold exploration during 2018.

In the quarter ended December, coal exploration expenditure increased by 44% compared with the previous corresponding period, while copper exploration expenditure was up 40% and copper, silver, lead-zinc, nickel and cobalt combined was up 30%.

Petroleum exploration expenditure rose 39% compared to the same quarter last year.

“Australia’s exploration sector is a world leader with initiatives such as the MinEx Cooperative Research Centre developing innovative technologies to identify new world-class deposits of copper, lithium, and rare earth elements that are used widely in modern consumer products, energy grids and transport systems,” said Minerals Council of Australia CEO Tania Constable.

“Exploration activity is fundamental to the future success of the Australian mining industry, but this success is not guaranteed. Policy-makers need to do more to ensure that Australia can take advantage of the growing demand from China, India and South-East Asia,” she added.

“Australia’s minerals sector must have policy certainty from federal and state governments to ensure Australia can develop its mineral potential into the mines of the future.”

The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) has echoed the call for policy certainty, with CEO Ian Macfarlane saying that if explorers were taking the punt to invest in exploration, they must have certainty that all subsequent project investments will be assessed fairly under a stable and transparent set of rules.

“Queensland had a wake-up call with the recently released Fraser Institute rankings showing the state had fallen a place to number 13 in terms of investment attractiveness,” Macfarlane said.

“At the same time Western Australia secured the number two ranking. Queensland can’t take its future success for granted. The resources sector employs 316 000 Queenslanders either directly or in supporting industries.”

He pointed out that the Queensland budget would be in the red by A$4.6-billion this year alone without the royalty taxes from the Queensland resources sector. The majority of those royalty taxes come from coal exports.

“To keep these benefits flowing to all Queenslanders we need a strong resources sector, underpinned by new investments and new projects to deliver new jobs.”

Edited by Mariaan Webb
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

Comments

Projects

Image of lithium ore
Bougouni lithium project, Mali – update
Updated 2 hours 17 minutes ago By: Sheila Barradas

Showroom

VEGA Controls SA (Pty) Ltd
VEGA Controls SA (Pty) Ltd

For over 60 years, VEGA has provided industry-leading products for the measurement of level, density, weight and pressure. As the inventor of the...

VISIT SHOWROOM 
SABAT
SABAT

From batteries for boats and jet skis, to batteries for cars and quad bikes, SABAT Batteries has positioned itself as the lifestyle battery of...

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Hyphen, Eva mine, ferrochrome price make headlines
Hyphen, Eva mine, ferrochrome price make headlines
27th March 2024
Resources Watch
Resources Watch
27th March 2024

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







sq:0.072 0.106s - 88pq - 2rq
Subscribe Now