Western Australia hosts some 531 commercial mineral projects, covering 1032 operating mine sites which produce over 50 different minerals. There are also more than 60 operating oil and gas fields.
Statistics produced by The Department of Mines and Petroleum (DMP) reveals the scale and strength of the Western Australian resources sector.
In 2008-09:
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The value of Western Australia’s mineral and petroleum industry set a new record, reaching $71.3 billion. This represents a 19% increase compared to the previous year.
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Western Australia accounts for approximately 46% of Australia's total value of mineral and petroleum sales.
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The Western Australian minerals and petroleum sectors contributed 89 per cent ($77.5 billion) towards the State’s total merchandise exports.
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38% ($86.8 billion) of Australia's total merchandise exports originated from Western Australia, an increase of 27% from the previous year.
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Australian minerals exploration expenditure in Australia totalled $2.2 billion. Western Australia accounted for 56% of national expenditure, reaching $1.25 billion.
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Mining employment averaged approximately 71,329 people, and peaked in October 2008 at an average of 77,528 people.
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For petroleum, average employment for totalled 6922 people, an increase of three percent from 2007-08.
Overall, during the past ten years the value of Western Australia’s mineral and petroleum industry has grown on average by 15 per cent per annum.
Over the past decade, royalties received by the Australian government from mineral and petroleum producers in Western Australia has increased 280 percent from $777 million in 1999-2000, to $3.2 billion, which was collected during the 2008/09 financial year. This represents royalties paid into the Western Australian Government Consolidated Revenue Fund. Out of the bulk of collections that attributed directly to the state, 60% of those collections came from the iron ore Industry and 27% came from the petroleum industry.
Top 5 Commodities in Order of Value
- Iron ore – iron ore recorded an impressive $33.6 billion in total value of sales for 2008-09. This was an increase of 53% from 2007-08.
- Crude Oil and Condensate – crude oil during 2008-09 recoded $7.7 billion in total value of sales, while condensate recorded $3.1 billion. Together, they were worth $10.8 billion in total value of sales.
- LNG – LNG recoded $8.5 billion in total value of sales for 2008-09. This was a substantial increase of 67% from 2007-08.
- Gold – gold had a record value of $5.2 billion in total sales for 2008-09. This was an increase of 25% from 2007-08.
- Alumina – Alumina recorded $4.6 billion in total value of sales for 2008-09. This was a slight increase from 2007-08.
These, and many more statistics, can be found in a range of reports and statistics published every year by The Department of Mines and Petroleum (DMP), such as Prospect Magazine and the Statistics Digest. Visit the Publications Section of the DMP website to view the latest edition.
Statistics courtesy of The Department of Mines and Petroleum 2008-09 Statistics Digest.