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.