australia's identified mineral resources 2005 - Geoscience Australia

AUSTRALIA’S IDENTIFIED MINERAL RESOURCES 2005
Exploration Stage
ABS, for the first time, reported statistics on spending on exploration for new deposits and for the
further delineation and/or extension of known mineralisation that has resources delineated. Spending
is classified as being for the search for new deposits until there has been a JORC compliant resource
estimate of any classification prepared. Subsequent spending on exploring that mineralisation would
be classified as further delineation or extension of a deposit.
Nationally 39% of exploration spending was directed at the search for new deposits. Tasmania had
the highest proportion of exploration in this category with 54.7% of its expenditure on new deposits,
whereas the Northern Territory had the lowest at 31.3%. This share of exploration directed to the
search for new deposits is in line with the Metals Economics Group (MEG) world survey of nonferrous
minerals exploration budgets for 2004, which found that 39% of the budget for exploration
in Australia was for grassroots exploration.
Exploration Drilling
In 2003–04, ABS reported that exploration drilling totalled 5.68 million metres, an increase of
0.52 million metres (10%) from 2002–03. Of the 2003–04 total, 2.68 million metres (47%) was on
the search for new deposits.
Drilling in calendar year 2004 was, at 6.521 million metres, 22% higher than in 2003. This was a
sustained growth throughout the year with increases in each quarter compared to equivalent quarters
in 2003, although in the March quarter growth was limited to 2.6%.
Exploration Outcomes
The increase in exploration activity saw an increase in the number of reported intersections of
mineralisation and several new discoveries. The more significant announcements during the year
included:
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A major increase in resources at Olympic Dam, South Australia.
Release of an initial resource estimate for the Prominent Hill deposit in South Australia.
A first indication of the size of the West Musgrave Ni-Cu-Co-PGE deposits, Western Australia.
Discovery of the Collurabbie Ni-Cu-PGE prospect in Western Australia.
Discovery of the Jacinth mineral sands deposit in the Eucla Basin, South Australia.
Details of exploration for individual commodities are reported under the review of resources for each
commodity in this review.
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World Exploration
The MEG survey of world non-ferrous mineral exploration budgets for 2004 reported an increase of
58% to an estimated total budget of US$3.8 billion. Budgets of companies responding to the survey
amounted to US$3.55 billion (Figure 5). Of the respondents’ budgets, US$524.1 million (14.7%) was
directed to exploration in Australia. While this was the highest budget since 1998, Australia’s share
of world budgets fell again, to fifth globally, and exploration by major companies has declined as a
proportion of total Australian exploration expenditure.