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Australia's Identified Mineral Resources 1997

Created 17/10/2025

Updated 17/10/2025

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In 1996, Australia's Economic Demonstrated Resources (EDR) of cobalt, gold, nickel, phosphate rock and tantalum increased substantially, while EDR of bauxite, lead, lithium, platinum group metals (PGM), silver and zinc rose slightly. There was a significant reduction in EDR of gem and near gem diamond and industrial diamond due to ongoing high levels of production. Magnesite and tin EDR were also significantly reduced as a result of depletion due to production and reassessment of deposits. EDR of all other commodities remained unchanged or had minor reductions. Australia continues to rank highly as one of the world's leading mineral resource nations. It has the world's largest EDR of bauxite, lead, mineral sands (ilmenite, rutile and zircon), silver, tantalum, uranium and zinc. In addition, its EDR is in the top six worldwide for black coal, brown coal, cobalt, copper, gold, iron ore, lithium, manganese ore, nickel, rare earth oxides, gem and near gem diamond and industrial diamond. Mineral exploration expenditure rose by 7.5% in 1995-96 to $960.2 million from $893.3 million in the previous year. Increases were recorded in all states and the Northern Territory. Gold was again the main target, accounting for 57% of the total expenditure. In 1995-96 mineral resources exports increased to a new record of $34.7 billion (thousand million), a rise of 12.7% over the previous fiscal year. These export earnings comprised 60% of Australia's commodity exports, 45% of merchandise exports and 35% of the country's total exports of goods and services. The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) forecast export earnings to set a further record in 1996-97, rising by nearly 4% to over $36 billion.

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Additional Info

Field Value
Title Australia's Identified Mineral Resources 1997
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/b8906eea-d510-4bd5-8115-e98c359e4227
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 20/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "Australia's Identified Mineral Resources 1997". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/australias-identified-mineral-resources-1997