Record year for mineral exploration expenditure

The June 2024 quarterly statistics on mineral exploration show spending across Australia’s exploration sector has produced another record year.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), expenditure in the June quarter reached $1.01b, an 11% increase from the $909.6m from the March quarter.

Annual expenditure across the country totalled a record $4.2b for FY24, a 1.6% increase on FY23.

Metres drilled for both greenfield and brownfield exploration rose in the June quarter by 33.8% to 656.7km and 29.5% to 1934.7km, respectively.

Annually however, greenfield exploration metres drilled decreased 14.2% and brownfield metres drilled decreased 10% due to a softer second half.

Association of Mining and Exploration Companies chief executive Warren Pearce commented on the results.

“With many challenges and the ongoing certainty around some federal legislation, the June quarter figures provide and important stocktake for the industry,” he said.

“There are positive signs, but there remains plenty of work to be done.

“The industry and investors need certainty moving forward to build on the last quarter and finish the year strongly.”

South Australia recorded a 6.9% increase in total exploration expenditure to $75.9m and Queensland’s exploration spending grew 10.2% to $139.9m.

Expenditure in Victoria rose in the June quarter by 15.6%, Tasmania jumped 14.7% and the Northern Territory saw a 16.9% rise to $47.8m.

WA led the country with an overall increase across all mineral categories, with nickel expenditure up 24.2% to $10.3m.

NSW was the only state to have a decrease, with expenditure falling a slight 1.1% and spending across in all mineral commodities slipping, with the exception of copper which was up by 10.7%.

“Mineral exploration is holding strong but remains in a holding pattern,” Mr Pearce said.

“The greenfield mineral exploration figures are a real concern and we need to do more onto ground to find the mines of the future.”