Two major records in Australia’s mineral exploration data for the June quarter and 2021-22 financial year confirm that the resources boom shows no sign of slowing.
If anything there was higher spending in the quarter and year on exploration for gold, copper, nickel, base metals, iron ore and other minerals (lithium etc) while spending on coal exploration fell slightly over the year.
The ABS data also showed exploration spending in the onshore and offshore petroleum industries dipped as well.
Much of the mineral spend – especially for gold, copper, coal, iron ore and nickel – was split between new deposits or discoveries or spent on expanding or proving up new deposits at existing mines for future mining.
This tells us that the new finds and extensions of existing prospects will come in these areas.
Gold accounted for more than 40% of the total mineral exploration spend in 2021-22 as the national obsession for the metal continues.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, quarterly spending on exploration topped $1 billion for the first time ever in the three months to June 30 – $1.056 billion in original terms ($1.024 billion seasonally adjusted).
The second was an all-time record of more than $3.8 billion spent on exploration in the year to June, up 22% from the previous year.
And mineral exploration spending cracked the $2 billion mark in the January – June 2022 period for the first time, up from $1.854 billion in the December half and $1.731 billion in the same period of 2021.
The annual data also shows that just over $5 billion was spent on exploration for minerals and petroleum/gas, up from $4.17 billion in 2020-21 and a record for the combined figure as well.
Looking at the annual figures for the various minerals, gold exploration again topped the list with nearly $1.6 billion spent looking for the precious metal, up from $1.53 billion in 2020-21.
But the figures are probably under reported because there are numerous instances where gold is found in copper drilling and vice versa, or gold, copper, nickel and platinum element minerals are found in one hole, such as those Chalice Mining is drilling north east of Perth on its huge Julimar prospect.
And then there’s BHP and its huge Olympic Dam mine in South Australia – drill holes there pick up gold, copper, uranium and silver. Its Oak Dam prospect in the same area finds gold, copper and uranium.
OZ Minerals finds gold and copper in its drilling at its South Australia mines and prospects (and West Musgrave in WA) and Newcrest, Evolution Mining and a host of other companies find other minerals at some of their gold/copper mines or prospects. Newmont finds copper and gold at its huge Boddington mine in WA.
For the duality of discovery, it’s no wonder that copper exploration spending jumped by 60% last financial year to more than $585 million from $377 million in 2020-21.
But as large as copper exploration spending has become, exploration spend on searching for base metals such as lead and zinc saw a near 50% rise in the year to June to $950 million from $652 million the year before.
Spending on searching for nickel and cobalt grew sharply in the year to more than $274 million from just on $210 million. Chalice Mining’s Gonneville discovery is actually the world’s biggest sulphide nickel find so far this century and its size continues to grow, but it also has gold, copper, PGE minerals and cobalt.
Spending on “other” unspecified minerals saw a big rise in 2021-22 of 64% to $364 million, from $224.4 million. This probably covers the search for lithium as well as for alumina, gravels, industrial metals like graphite, borates etc.
Iron ore spending has held up despite the weakness and volatility in Chinese demand in the final half of the June year. $646 million was spent looking for iron ore or proving up existing deposits for mining purposes. That was up 36% year on year.
Exploration for coal eased slightly to $225 million in 2021-22 from $235 million the year before.
More than $90 million was spent on looking for silver in the latest year, around $67 million was spent searching for of updating grades for mining purposes for mineral sands and uranium exploration totalled $16.7 million.
Total spending on exploring for oil and gas rose to $1.152 billion in the year to June 30 from $1.002 billion the previous year.
(But the total spent on gold exploration topped that by 50% in the year to June).
That small rise reflects the still active drilling activity offshore WA, especially on the Northwest Shelf and nearby waters.
In the June quarter the ABS data showed that spending on exploration at existing deposits rose 24.5% ($145.7 million) to $740.7 million; exploration spending on new deposits jumped 205 to $313 million.
In something of a surprise given the price weakness, spending on iron ore exploration jumped 44.1% in the quarter or $61.5 million to $201 million. That was the biggest rise for any mineral.
The biggest quarterly spend was on gold – $420 million, followed by $241 million for base metals, $201 million for iron ore and $135 million for copper
But total exploration spending in petroleum tumbled 21.4% to $245.5 million (seasonally adjusted) in the quarter, the lowest quarterly figure since the March 2018 quarter. Exploration fell both onshore and offshore.
WA of course remains the major state for exploration for both minerals and oil and gas, accounting for more than 60% of the total national mineral exploration spend.
Mineral exploration spending in the state leapt to a new high of more than $2.47 billion – up around a quarter from the $2.04 billion spent the year before.
WA had half the $1.1 billion spent on petroleum and gas exploration at $589 million in 2021-22 (seasonally adjusted).
