b8906eea-d510-4bd5-8115-e98c359e4227 urn:uuid eng UTF-8 nonGeographicDataset nonGeographicDataset 2025-10-16T15:48:59 creation ISO 19115 2016 Australia's Identified Mineral Resources 1997 b8906eea-d510-4bd5-8115-e98c359e4227 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. {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[110.0, -44.0], [156.0, -44.0], [156.0, -9.0], [110.0, -9.0], [110.0, -44.0]]]} 110.0 156.0 -44.0 -9.0 AU Earth Sciences GA Publication Published_External Report commodities geoscience mineral deposits mineral exploration resource assessment Related Product documentDigital Australian Atlas of Mineral Resources, Mines, and Processing Centres HTML Download the file (pdf) documentDigital Download the file (pdf) PDF Unnamed resource documentDigital HTML