Western Australia has slipped in the latest rankings of an international survey that measures the impact of government policy on exploration and mining investment.
A 40 per cent rise in project applications with the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety last year has provided another signal of a turnaround in the mining sector.
A further reshuffling of state government departments appears likely after Treasurer Ben Wyatt released the government's service priority review today.
Fortescue Metals Group, Iluka Resources and Rio Tinto are among the five overall category winners in the 2017 state government's Awards for Excellence.
SPECIAL REPORT: Roy Hill Holdings and Chevon have joined the likes of Rio Tinto, BHP, Woodside and CBH Group in an updated ranking of WA's largest exporters in the BNiQ Search Engine.
The state government has strengthened its ban on fracking in Perth and the South West, while moving to appoint Environmental Protection Authority chairman Tom Hatton to run a scientific inquiry into the drilling technique.
Resources companies look set to get out their drill bits this year, with the number of exploration applications made to the state government up nearly 50 per cent in the March quarter compared to the same period in 2016.
The state government has cut the number of its departments from 41 to 25, with a fifth of jobs in the Senior Executive Service – Western Australia's highest-paid bureaucrats – to go.
SPECIAL REPORT: Strong employment growth in the gold sector partially compensated for job losses in iron ore in the 2016 financial year, according to recently released data from the Department of Mines and Petroleum.
Continuing investment in major resources projects nearing completion contributed $35 billion to the Western Australian economy in 2015-16, around two thirds of Australia's resources investment spend in the year, according to the Department of Mines and Petroleum.
The state government has acted on a key recommendation from a parliamentary inquiry into fracking delivered late last year, appointing a working group to review laws around land access.
The state government has appointed Richard Sellers to the role of director general of the Department of Transport, succeeding Reece Waldock who retired last month.
A task-based risk assessment was not performed before a drill fitter was fatally crushed while working on a rig at Rio Tinto's Channar mine in the Pilbara.
Mt Gibson Iron has received preliminary Environmental Protection Authority approval for development of its Iron Hill deposits northeast of Dalwallinu, although there is still some process to go before work can begin.
Echo Resources says it will cost just $2.9 million to bring its Julius gold project into production, while Empire Resources expects to begin mining at its Penny's Find gold project in the coming three months.
Western Australia's peak business group has welcomed the state government's budget, but other business groups believed more could have been done for their respective sectors.
Recently revived Eastern Goldfields has called on the Department of Mines and Petroleum to withdraw a request for $8.6 million worth of the company's bonds.
SPECIAL REPORT: There has been a major shift in business influence in WA amid waning international investment and, with two elections on the way, there is a prospect of even bigger changes in political influence. Click through to see our listing of WA's most infliential leaders in politics and business.
Aspiring mineral sands miner Sheffield Resources has appointed engineering group Hatch to undertake a bankable feasibility study on its Thunderbird project near Derby.
The state government has signalled its intentions to proactively support Western Australian companies interested in growing energy commodity exports to Europe and participating in European Union activities.
Subsidiaries of listed companies Ausdrill and RCR Tomlinson have been ordered to pay more than $450,000 in fines and court costs over two workplace deaths five years ago.
Talisman Mining, Evolution Mining and Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines are among a number of miners to win state government exploration grants, with gold, nickel and copper the most popular commodities targeted.
Three workers have been killed in two separate incidents across Perth today, including two men crushed by a concrete slab at a construction worksite in East Perth.
A dispute over the future of the failed Ellendale mine might not be the worst event in the downturn hurting the state's once-brilliant diamond industry, because the much bigger Argyle mine is also facing a fresh threat to its future.
The chairman of a state inquiry into the impact of fly-in, fly-out work practices on mental health has highlighted several missed opportunities following the state's announcement it will enact half of the 30 recommendations.
The state government has announced it supports half of the 30 recommendations stemming from a parliamentary inquiry into the impact of fly-in, fly-out work on the mental health of those in the resources industry, after considering the findings for nearly four months.
With science increasingly giving hydraulic stimulation, or ‘fracking', the thumbs up, the practice could be used to unlock enormous amounts of tight gas in WA.
After a prodigious drop in exploration spending during the past decade, miners and governments have unveiled a blueprint to kickstart greenfields programs.
Mines and Petroleum Minister Bill Marmion has again touted Western Australia's credentials as a destination for uranium mining, this time at today's opening of the Australian Uranium Conference in Perth.
The chairman of a state inquiry into the impact of fly-in, fly-out work practices on mental health is confident Western Australia can enact a raft of recommendations to reduce suicides and improve wellbeing for the state's 60,000 Fifo workers, despite admitting the federal government's response to a recent similar national inquiry was ‘lame'.
The state government expects about half of local prospectors' program of work applications will be fee-free from the start of July, after it substantially increased the size threshold.
