1301.0 - Year Book Australia, 2004  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 27/02/2004   
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Contents >> Mining >> Research and development expenditure (R&D)

The mining industry has been spending increasing amounts of R&D expenditure. Over the period 1992-93 to 2001-02, expenditure has increased by 203% from $176m in 1992-93 to $534m in 2001-02. At the end of this period, mining accounted for 9.6% of total R&D expenditure by all industries in comparison to 6.2% in 1992-93. The manufacturing industry's share of total R&D expenditure continued to be the highest, accounting for 43% in 2001-02.

Graph 16.21 shows the type of R&D expenditure by the mining industry. For the period 1992-93 to 2001-02, current expenditure other than labour costs is the major component of R&D expenditure for the mining industry, accounting for 82% of mining R&D expenditure in 2001-02. This category includes expenses on materials, fuels, rent and hiring, repairs and maintenance and data processing etc. and the proportion of expenses on general services and overheads attributable to R&D activity. In the mining industry, these expenses increased by $343m (373%) from $92m in 1992-93 to $435m in 2001-02, while the amount spent on labour and capital fell. As a result, labour cost and capital expenditure as a proportion of total R&D expenditure fell to 12% and 6.4% respectively in 2001-02. For all industries, other current expenditure of $2,737m accounted for 49% of total expenditure ($5,546m) in 2001-02, while labour costs contributed 43% ($2,398m) and capital expenditure 7.4% ($410m).

Graph - 16.21 Expenditure on R&D, By type


In 2001-02, Queensland accounted for the largest R&D expenditure in the mining industry (41%), followed by Western Australia (23%) and New South Wales (16%). This compares with previous years when Western Australia had the largest expenditure by a wide margin.

The mining industry accounted for a significant proportion of R&D expenditure in Western Australia (30%) and Queensland (30%) compared to 10% nationally, consistent with the importance of the industry to these states.

16.22 EXPENDITURE ON R&D, By selected locations(a)

1997-98
1998-99
1999-2000
2000-01
2001-02





Mining
All
industries
Mining
All
industries
Mining
All
industries
Mining
All
industries
Mining
All
industries
'000
'000
'000
'000
'000
'000
'000
'000
'000
'000

NSW
115,489
1,432,711
91,349
1,391,692
37,265
1,440,297
57,095
1,737,401
84,623
2,070,607
Vic.
32,067
1,444,499
37,940
1,445,212
36,964
1,495,106
31,499
1,718,379
36,176
1,792,740
Qld
123,149
486,278
71,736
437,246
72,642
441,523
116,628
523,953
216,613
722,889
SA
n.p.
241,429
35,072
248,516
20,559
247,342
25,452
295,175
n.p.
364,216
WA
195,735
465,544
214,932
440,177
102,699
336,538
213,426
479,043
122,570
403,628
Other(b)
30,375
122,495
22,368
89,341
17,260
110,832
14,135
99,619
25,206
115,044
Overseas
n.p.
28,105
11,345
42,517
3,882
40,722
4,188
63,788
n.p.
76,411
Total
536,646
4,221,061
484,742
4,094,701
291,271
4,112,360
462,423
4,917,357
533,948
5,545,534

(a) Excludes businesses in Agriculture, forestry and fishing (i.e. in ANZSIC Division A).
(b) Other states and territories.
Source: Research and Experimental Development, Businesses, Australia (8104.0).

In 2001-02, the mining industry funded most of its R&D expenditure with $520m (97%) sourced from money owned by the mining business (own funds). The remaining expenditure is funded from the Australian Government and businesses in other industries. This compares with the total for all industries of which $4,782m (86%) was sourced from own funds, $268m (4.8%) from the Australian Government, $309m (5.6%) from overseas, $136m (2.5%) from other businesses, and the remainder from state and local government and other Australian (including higher education and private non-profit sectors) sources.



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