Mineral and Petroleum Exploration, Australia

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

Reference period
June 2021
Released
30/08/2021

Mineral exploration

Total expenditure, seasonally adjusted

  • Rise of 3.7% (+$31.3m) to $878.3m

Mineral exploration, original series

 

  • Rise of 24.1% (+$177.2m) to $912.0m 
  • Existing deposits rose 24.7% (+$119.0m) to $601.5m
  • New deposits rose 23.1% (+$58.2m) to $310.5m
  • Gold recorded the largest rise (up 19.3%, +$69.6m) to $429.8m

 

Metres drilled, seasonally adjusted

  • Rise of 5.5%

Metres drilled, original series

 

  • Rose 30.4%
  • New deposits rose 26.1%
  • Existing deposits rose 32.4%.

 

Petroleum exploration

Total expenditure, seasonally adjusted

  • Fall of 8.4% (-$22.7m) to $248.9m
  • All other areas fell 1.0% (-$1.3m) to $124.2m
  • Production lease areas fell 14.6% (-$21.4m) to $124.7m.

 

Onshore, seasonally adjusted

  • Fell 2.9% (-$4.9m) to $165.1m 

Offshore, seasonally adjusted

  • Fell 17.5% (-$17.8m) to $83.8m

  

​​​​​​​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.

Data downloads

Time series spreadsheets

Data files

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 8412.0.

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