Tag: minerals

According to data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), near record levels of investment in exploration for minerals and metals is continuing to back Australia’s economic recovery. Investment in minerals exploration has increased 14% to $3.2b in 2020-21, the highest spending since the peak of the mining boom in 2012. Gold exploration – up 32% – has been the main driver of this growth, accounting for 48% of all exploration investment in Australia for the last financial year. Victoria and Queensland have shown particularly strong trends in exploration expenditure in 2020-21. In the June 2021 quarter, $55.7m was spent on minerals exploration in Victoria, bringing total minerals exploration expenditure in the 2020-21 financial year to $184.9m –...

MINING companies can more accurately pinpoint reserves of valuable minerals using a new water-tasting approach developed by  CSIRO. In work supported by the Minerals Research Institute of WA, CSIRO researcher Nathan Reid led a team of scientists analysing samples of groundwater from the Capricorn region in WA, where layers of sediment and weathering are believed to hide potential ore deposits from view. They discovered broad 'haloes' of altered water chemistry around known deposits of gold, uranium, and other minerals where interaction with the ore systems had left distinctive traces in the water. "Groundwater penetrates through covering sediments and interacts directly with the bedrock, dissolving trace amounts of the minerals present into solution," Dr Reid said. "By sampling those waters, our...

WA has led the nation in resource sales, netting $167.3b for the 2019 calendar year. The state's Department of Mines, Industry, Regulation and Safety (DMIRS) said sales rose by 28pc from 2018 ($130.3b), mainly from iron and gold production. The DMIRS said high iron ore prices in the first half of 2019, following global supply shortages, were the main contributor, with $97.7b of the product sold last year, accounting for 76pc of overall mineral sales in WA. Not far behind were gold sales, with the volume being the highest the state has shipped in more than two decades, with $13.8b worth of the metal sold last year, also thanks to record gold prices of more than $2000/oz average. Industry confidence...