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Mineral and Petroleum Exploration, Australia

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

Reference period
March 2023
Released
5/06/2023

Key statistics

  • Mineral exploration expenditure rose by 0.7%
  • Petroleum exploration expenditure rose by 16.3%
  Mar Qtr 23Dec Qtr 22 to Mar Qtr 23Mar Qtr 22 to Mar Qtr 23
  $m% change% change
Seasonally adjusted   
 Mineral Exploration Expenditure1,0250.74.0
 Petroleum Exploration Expenditure24416.3-18.9
     
Trend   
 Mineral Exploration Expenditure1,020-0.43.7
 Petroleum Exploration Expenditure2282.5-20.7

Mineral exploration

Total expenditure, seasonally adjusted and trend

  • Seasonally adjusted rise of 0.7% ($7.3m) to $1,025.1m

  • Trend fall of 0.4% ($4.6m) to $1,020.0m

Mineral exploration, by deposit type, original series

  • Fall of 14.9% ($156.4m) to $891.8m 
  • New deposits fell 22.2% ($78.4m) to $274.6m
  • Existing deposits fell 11.2% ($78.0m) to $617.2m

Mineral exploration, by mineral type, original series

  • Gold recorded the largest fall (down 20.5%, $73.6m) to $285.7m

(a) Selected Base Metals contains Copper, Silver, Lead & Zinc, and Nickel & Cobalt

(b) All Others contains Mineral Sands, Uranium, Diamonds and Other Minerals

Metres drilled, seasonally adjusted and trend

  • Seasonally adjusted rise of 1.9% (55.2km) to 2,909.8km
  • Trend rise of 0.6% (16.5km) to 2,878.7km

Metres drilled, original series

  • Fall of 11.9% (338.0km) to 2,513.0km
  • Existing deposits fell 8.7% (179.1km) to 1,878.4km
  • New deposits fell 20.0% (158.9km) to 634.6km

Petroleum exploration

Total expenditure, seasonally adjusted and trend

  • Seasonally adjusted rise of 16.3% ($34.3m) to $244.4m
  • Trend rise of 2.5% ($5.5m) to $228.2m

Onshore, seasonally adjusted and trend

  • Seasonally adjusted rise of 12.5% ($17.3m) to $155.3m
  • Trend rise of 2.0% ($2.9m) to $149.5m

Offshore, seasonally adjusted and trend

  • Seasonally adjusted rise of 23.6% ($17.0m) to $89.1m
  • Trend rise of 3.8% ($2.9m) to $78.9m

  

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Mineral Exploration - Quarterly mineral exploration expenditure and metres drilled

Petroleum Exploration - Quarterly petroleum expenditure

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Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 8412.0.

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