Australia's Identified Mineral Resources 2024 Introduction
Page last updated:27 February 2025
Introduction
Australia’s unique geology has attracted explorers for over a century. Our wealth of mineral resources has underpinned our economic success and provided the foundation for Australia’s strong and globally leading environmental, social and governance arrangements for continued exploration, extraction and development. Today, our mineral resources will be key to Australia and the world’s transition to a net zero economy and sustainable future.
The Australian Government’s Future Made in Australia plan will enable investment, develop our competitive advantage and position us to supply critical minerals1 for a lower-carbon global economy. In 2023, our world-leading mining sector grew our inventory of mineral resources so that we can supply the nation, and our global partners, with the critical minerals and strategic materials needed for clean energy technology. Also during this period, our capacity to supply mineral resources, including critical minerals and strategic materials, was boosted by new exploration, discovery and responsible development. Overall mineral exploration spending increased from the previous year by 5% to reach $4.27 billion and bolster Australia’s mineral resources inventory.
In 2023, Australia was a top five global producer of 14 mineral commodities, namely bauxite, black coal, cobalt, gold, iron ore, lead, lithium, manganese, rare earths, rutile, tantalum, uranium, zinc and zircon. Australia remained a leading supplier of many of the critical minerals used to generate and store renewable energy, build electric vehicles and manufacture future-facing technologies and electronic devices. For example, Australia held its world number ranking for lithium production in 2023, providing 49% 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.
Australia’s mining exports in 2023 (excluding petroleum products) were worth $343 billion2, the sector accounted for 13% of gross domestic product3 and employed some 220,000 people4, with many more employed by related industries. Traditional mineral commodity exports remained the main source of Australian mineral export earnings. In 2023, iron ore exports were valued at $139 billion and coal exported for steelmaking and energy-generation was worth $103 billion; together iron ore and coal accounted for approximately 70% of the nation’s mineral export earnings.
In December 2023, the Australian Government finalised its review of Australia’s Critical Minerals List5, which was developed in support of the Critical Minerals Strategy6 and its vision to grow Australia’s critical minerals sector. The list was expanded to include arsenic, fluorine, molybdenum, selenium and tellurium, with helium removed. In addition, the Australian Government published a Strategic Materials List7 comprising aluminium, copper, nickel, phosphorus, tin and zinc in recognition of their importance to the global transition to net zero and broader strategic applications. In February 2024, owing to substantial structural changes to the industry, nickel was removed from the Strategic Materials List and placed on the Critical Minerals List, bringing the total number of critical minerals to 31.
Notable trends in 2023
In 2023, interest in critical minerals remained unabated and exploration for ‘other metals’, a category that includes many critical minerals, grew by 58% to reach $767.5 million8 accounting for 18% of total exploration spend. The expenditure in this category was second only to gold ($1,249.7 million; 29% of total) and exceeded that of iron ore ($700.3 million). Exploration for copper, a strategic material, remained strong at $666.8 million and represented 16% of total exploration spending.
During the year, Australia continued to hold the world’s largest economic resources of gold, iron ore, lead, rutile, uranium, zinc and zircon. There was significant growth in the economic inventories of 13 critical minerals and strategic materials. Economic inventories increased for platinum group elements (up 30%), graphite (up 27%), lithium (up 20%), niobium and vanadium (both up 18%), manganese ore (up 16%), high-purity alumina (up 14%), molybdenum, rare earths and tantalum (all up 10%), rutile (up 6%) and bauxite (up 5%). In addition, new economic resources (748 kt) were recorded for chromium.
In 2023, Australia’s world ranking for nickel resources fell, from first in the world to second. This reflects Indonesia’s nickel inventory more than doubling in 2023, leading to an increase of more than 25% in world nickel resources. Indonesia’s nickel production has surged in recent years as it seeks to integrate its battery supply chain and, in 2023, Indonesia accounted for half of world nickel production9. In terms of pricing, nickel prices in 2022 soared in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which disrupted global supply; while in 2023, oversupply and reduced global demand saw a slump in the price of nickel on the London Metal Exchange. As a consequence, Australian nickel operators put investment decisions on hold whilst reducing production and transitioning mines to care and maintenance.
Iron ore continued to be an important contributor to Australia’s economy in 2023, accounting for 41% ($139 billion including iron ore, crude steel and scrap) of Australia’s mineral resource export earnings. Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon (coal) and steel manufacturers incorporate alloying elements such as chromium, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, tungsten and vanadium, all critical minerals, to create highly resistant products with improved mechanical properties.
In 2023, Australia leapt to first in the world for vanadium resources, up from second in 2022. Australia’s emerging vanadium industry is developing projects to boost world supply of vanadium for high-strength steel alloys and redox flow batteries. In addition, the Dolphin tungsten mine, located in Tasmania, reopened after a hiatus of more than 30 years and recommenced exporting concentrated tungsten, which is used to make hard metals and electronics. In 2023, molybdenum production also increased as the Cadia mine in New South Wales progressed its operating plan. Molybdenum is produced at Cadia 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, bulk commodities such as iron ore and coal continued to generate large amounts of export income, yet export earnings from metals used in low-carbon technologies were increasingly significant in 2023. Exports of lithium ores and concentrates rose, and earnings increased by 55%, from $12.125 billion in 2022 to $18.777 billion in 2023. The value of bauxite exports, essential for aluminium production, also increased by 48%, from $1.133 billion to $1.680 billion.
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 45 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 Australian and world 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 2024 of Australia’s Ore Reserves and Mineral Resources are as at 31 December 2023, reflecting the status of the national inventory as the World Health Organisation declared the end of COVID-19 as a global health emergency. 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 estimated mainly using information published by the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
1 A critical mineral is an element or mineral that is essential for the functioning of modern technologies, economies or national security and there is a risk of disruption to its supply chains.
2 Office of the Chief Economist (Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources), Resources and Energy Quarterly, September 2024.
3 Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian National Accounts, National Income, Expenditure and Product. Cat. No. 5206.0. Figure calculated using mining exports (excluding petroleum products) of $343 billion and Gross Domestic Product, Current Prices, Table 1 ($2,623 billion).
4 Australian Bureau of Statistics, 81550DO005_202223 Australian Industry 2022–23. Table 1.
5 https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/australias-critical-minerals-list-and-strategic-materials-list
6 Australian Government. Critical Minerals Strategy 2023–2030. Department of Industry, Science and Resources, Canberra, 58pp. https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/critical-minerals-strategy-2023–2030
7 See Footnote 5.
8 ABS, Quarterly Statistics, Mineral and Petroleum Exploration March 2024. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/industry/mining/mineral-and-petroleum-exploration-australia/latest-release#data-downloads (accessed 15 March 2024).
9 United States Geological Survey 2025, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2024. https://doi.org/10.3133/mcs2024