PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Western Australian government this week revealed that the resources sector reached record sales of A$231-billion in 2021/22, with employment reaching an all-time high of more than 157 700 workers.
The Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety's 2021/22 Statistics Digest stated that iron-ore accounted for A$137-billion of sales during the period, while gold sales reached a record A$17-billion and lithium was the state’s third highest seller at a record A$6.8-billion.
While the sales figures for iron-ore were still historically high, it was down from previous record levels owing to the price of iron-ore falling from an all-time high in excess of $200/t in mid-2021 to less than $100/t towards the end of 2021.
The fall in the value of sales by the iron-ore industry was largely offset by the continued recovery in the petroleum industry from rising oil and natural gas prices, the results showed.
The digest noted that higher prices translated into liquefied natural gas (LNG) production valued at an all-time high of A$38-billion, condensate production valued at a record $8.6-billion, and crude oil production value at a seven-year high of $3.6-billion.
Meanwhile, mineral exploration expenditure reached a new high of A$2.5-billion with strong levels of spending on gold, nickel, copper, rare earths and lithium.
Interest in the resources sector remains strong with A$24-billion invested during 2021/22, and there were around A$57-billion of resources projects under development, the digest found. A further A$87-billion in medium- and longer-term projects are under consideration.