Australia's Identified Mineral Resources 2023 Introduction

Introduction

Australia's rich and varied minerals endowment has attracted explorers for many thousands of years and today we walk in the footsteps of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders— Australia's original mappers and miners. Australia's rich geology has underpinned the nation's development and is now foundational to the implementation of large-scale emissions reduction technologies needed to address the challenge of climate change. Australia's world-leading mining sector is expanding beyond traditional mineral commodities such as iron, coal and gold, so we can supply the nation, and our global partners, with the critical and strategic mineral commodities needed for modern economies and the transition to a net-zero economy.

In 2022, Australia's mining exports (excluding petroleum products) were worth nearly $362 billion¹, the sector accounted for 15% of gross domestic product² and employed some 287,000 people³ with many more employed by related industries. Mineral exploration spending exceeded $4 billion with gold, iron ore and copper leading the way, with large increases seen in uranium (up 76%) and minor metals, a category that includes many critical minerals (up 66%). Exploration leads to discovery and in 2022 Australia held the world's largest economic resources of gold, iron ore, lead, nickel, rutile, uranium, zinc and zircon.

During this period, Australia was a top five global producer of 15 mineral commodities, namely bauxite, coal, cobalt, gold, iron ore, lead, lithium, manganese, nickel, rare earths, rutile, tantalum, uranium, zinc and zircon. Australia remained a leading supplier of many of the critical minerals⁴ used to generate and store renewable energy, build electric vehicles and manufacture future-facing technologies and electronic devices. For example, Australia retained its world number one ranking for lithium production in 2022, providing 52% of global supply to meet rising demand in the electric vehicle sector. Australia also retained its number one production ranking for the bulk commodities of bauxite, iron ore and rutile and, in 2022, its world ranking for rare earths production increased one place to third.

Also in 2022, the Australian Government began a review of Australia's Critical Minerals List, a key part of the Critical Minerals Strategy⁵. The review was published in December 2023⁶, and adjusted in February 2024⁷ to include nickel. The updated Critical Minerals List has expanded to 31 commodities. It now includes arsenic, fluorine, molybdenum, nickel, selenium and tellurium, with helium removed. In addition, the Australian Government published a Strategic Materials List⁸ comprising aluminium, copper, phosphorous, tin and zinc in recognition of their importance to the global transition to net zero and broader strategic applications.

Notable trends in 2022

In 2022, Australia was the world's fifth largest producer of black coal, providing 6% of world supply, and held the fourth largest share of global resources, accounting for 10% of the world's economic inventory. Black coal exports overtook iron ore in 2022 as Australia's leading mineral commodity export with a value of $142 billion, accounting for 39% of total mineral export earnings.⁹ This was up from $64 billion in 2021. Thermal coal, which is used for energy generation, comprised 48% ($68 billion) of coal earnings and metallurgical coal, which is employed in steel production, made up the remaining 52% ($74 billion).

Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon (coal), and iron ore continued to be an important contributor to Australia's economy in 2022, accounting for 35% of Australia's export earnings, despite these dropping to $127 billion from $156 billion the previous year. Steel is also made with additional alloying elements such as manganese, molybdenum, nickel, vanadium and chromium to create highly resistant products with improved mechanical properties. In 2022, Australia resumed molybdenum production for the first time since 1978 at the Cadia operations in New South Wales. Molybdenum, a critical mineral, is produced there as a by-product of copper-gold extraction. It is used in structural steel and steel alloys to enhance strength, resistance to corrosion and heat and to reduce brittleness.

As noted above, in 2022, Australia provided more than half of the world's mined lithium, another critical mineral. Surging prices drove the opening and re-opening of new and suspended operations, with Australian miners increasing their lithium output by 36% to support demand, which was largely driven by production of rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles and portable devices. As a result, the value of Australia's lithium exports (spodumene ore and concentrate) increased dramatically from $1.7 billion in 2021 to $12.1 billion in 2022 (up more than 600%). The production of cobalt, another critical mineral used in rechargeable batteries, increased by 9% due to increased supply from Western Australian operations and the start-up of the Avebury nickel-cobalt mine in Tasmania.

The ongoing interest in critical minerals flowed through to exploration. Exploration expenditure for the category of 'minor metals' increased 66% on 2021 to a new high of $483 million¹⁰, accounting for nearly 12% of all Australian mineral exploration expenditure. As a result, the national inventory grew for 12 critical minerals as Australian explorers and developers responded to increased interest in the sector. Bumper gains were seen in the economic inventories of manganese ore (up 79%), platinum group elements (up 45%) and rare earths (up 34%). Other commodities with significant gains (of 5% or more) were cobalt, graphite, ilmenite, lithium, molybdenum, rutile, tantalum, vanadium and zircon.

About this publication

Geoscience Australia and its predecessors have prepared the annual assessment of Australia's mineral resources since 1975. Thus, this publication—Australia's Identified Mineral Resources (AIMR)—is able to draw on over 40 years of data to reveal trends in reserve estimates, resource estimates and mine production over a range of periods. This assessment also provides useful long-term indicators of potential resource life and future supply capability, including for many critical minerals. AIMR is designed to assist government decision-making on policy, enable mineral-sector program planning, and contribute to the sustainable development of Australia's mineral resources.

AIMR presents Australia's Ore Reserves at operating mines (Table 1) and all deposits (Table 2), also longer-term estimates of the nation's Identified Mineral Resources (Table 3) and changes in resource estimates and production from the previous year (Table 4). It is also of interest to note Australia's ranking as a global source of minerals (Table 5) as many countries are dependent on reliable supply from Australia for their own economies.

The estimates in AIMR 2023 of Australia's Ore Reserves and Mineral Resources are as at 31 December 2022, reflecting the status of the national inventory as the nation emerged from COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and other impacts. The data in this and future reports will, therefore, inform government and industry going forward when assessing the short and long-term effects of this health and economic emergency on Australia's mining sector. Another trend of note is the focus on exploration and development of projects for critical minerals and other strategic resources. Minerals on the Australian Critical Minerals List and the Australian Strategic Materials List are noted in the Commodity Summaries section of AIMR.

The data in the national minerals inventory is sourced primarily from published company reports but includes some confidential and historical data. The category of highest geological and economic confidence in the national inventory is Economic Demonstrated Resources (EDR) which, in essence, combines the Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) Code categories of Proved and Probable Ore Reserves and most of Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources.

Mine production figures are sourced from the Office of the Chief Economist at the Department of Industry, Science and Resources, state government publications and company reports. World rankings of Australia's mineral resources have been calculated mainly using information published by the United States Geological Survey (USGS).