8401.0 - Mining, Electricity and Gas Operations, Australia, Preliminary, 1997-98  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 26/02/1999   
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  • Turnover up in mining, electricity and gas industries (Media Release)

MEDIA RELEASE

February 26, 1999
Embargoed: 11:30 AM (AEST)
20/99

Turnover up in mining, electricity and gas industries

Turnover in the gold mining industry increased by $488 million (10%) in 1997-98, while the mining industry generally reported a 4% increase with a total turnover of $35.5 billion for the year, according to a preliminary report released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Turnover also increased in the electricity and gas industries.

Turnover in the coal industry grew by $529 million (5%), and in the oil and gas extraction industry by $350 million (4%). A decrease in turnover was reported for bauxite mining, mineral sand mining, silver-lead-zinc mining and other metal ore mining. Coal mining continued to provide the largest contribution (32%) to total turnover for the industry. Western Australia remained the largest contributor to turnover, accounting for 43%, while Queensland contributed 22%.

Employment in the mining industry decreased by 3,038 people (5%) over 1996-97. Most of the decrease occurred in coal mining, where employment dropped by 2,394 (9%), partly due to redundancies and a move towards contract mining in a bid to increase productivity. Copper mining (up 10%) and oil and gas extraction (up 2%) were the only industries to experience an increase in employment.

The coal mining industry remained the largest employer in 1997-98, accounting for 45% of all employees, followed by gold mining with 15%. Western Australia has the highest number of mining employees (33%), followed by New South Wales (27%) and Queensland (26%).

Turnover in the electricity industry increased by $712 million to $22 billion, up 3% over 1996-97. The majority of the increase was a result of the splitting up of existing electricity operations into several new entities involved in the distribution and retailing of electricity, as well as other related activities. This has resulted in a recording of external payments and receipts of transmission expenses and sales commission expenses, which were previously recorded generally within the one organisation.

Employment in the electricity industry dropped by 776 to 34,735. A large proportion of the overall decrease was due to redundancies. The largest decreases in employment occurred in New South Wales (4%) and Queensland (6%). In contrast, employment in the electricity industry in Victoria increased by 4%.

Turnover in the gas industry increased by $1.5 billion over 1996-97 to $4.4 billion, mainly due to the inclusion of certain expenses as indicated for the electricity industry. Employment fell by 945 (20%), partly due to industry restructuring resulting in a creation of establishments which are coded to other industries and hence not included in the gas industry data collection.

Details are in Mining, Electricity and Gas Operations, Australia, Preliminary, 1997-98 (cat. no. 8401.0), available from ABS bookshops. A summary of the publication is also available on this site.