Mineral and Petroleum Exploration, Australia

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Quarterly statistics on mineral and petroleum exploration expenditure by private organisations in Australia

Reference period
December 2020
Released
1/03/2021

Mineral exploration

Total expenditure

  • Mineral exploration rose 2.5% to $718.4m

Mineral exploration, original series

  • Rise of 1.2% (+$9.1m) to $754.0m 
  • Existing deposits rose 4.2% (+$20.6m)
  • New deposits fell 4.5% (-$11.5m)
  • Selected Base Metals recorded the largest rise (up 12.5%, +$17.2m)

Metres drilled

  • Rise of 4.1%

Metres Drilled, original series

  • Fell 1.6%
  • New deposits fell 2.2%
  • Existing deposits fell 1.3%.

Petroleum exploration

Total expenditure

  • Rise of 3.1% (+$6.9m) to $228.9m 
  • All other areas rose 9.6% (+$11.9m) 
  • Production lease areas fell 5.0% (-$4.9m).

Onshore

  • Fell 11.2% (-$17.3m) to $136.6m 

Offshore

  • Rise of 35.7% (+$24.3m) to $92.4m

  

​​​​​​​Suspension of trend series

The trend series attempts to measure underlying behaviour in exploration expenditure and metres drilled. Due to Covid-19, in the short term this measurement will be significantly affected by changes to regular patterns. If the trend estimates in this publication were to be calculated without fully accounting for this irregular event, they would likely provide a misleading view of underlying exploration expenditure and metres drilled.

It may be some time before the underlying trend in exploration expenditure and metres drilled can be accurately estimated. The exploration expenditure and metres drilled trend series has therefore been suspended from March quarter 2020 onwards. The trend series will be reinstated when more certainty emerges in the underlying trend.

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Data downloads

Table 1. Private exploration, actual and expected expenditure

Table 2. Mineral exploration, (other than for petroleum) - expenditure and metres drilled

Table 3b. Mineral exploration, (other than for petroleum) - expenditure by type of deposit

Table 4. Mineral exploration, (other than for petroleum) - expenditure by state and territory

Table 5. Mineral exploration, (other than for petroleum) - expenditure by mineral sought

Table 6a. Petroleum exploration, expenditure by onshore and offshore

Table 6b. Petroleum exploration, expenditure by type of lease

Table 7. Petroleum exploration, expenditure by state and territory

All data cubes

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 8412.0.

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