Western Australia has lost ground in its proportion of national exploration expenditure, slipping two percentage points between the September and December quarters of 2007 to achieve a 50.1 per cent spend, new Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show.
Western Australia has lost ground in its proportion of national exploration expenditure, slipping two percentage points between the September and December quarters of 2007 to achieve a 50.1 per cent spend, new Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show.
But the booming resources-backed state can still claim to be the biggest proportionate spender by far compared to New South Wales (up from 6.7 per cent to 7.7 per cent), Victoria (up from 3.1 per cent to 4 per cent), Queensland (up from 15.1 per cent to 16 per cent), and the Northern Territory (up from 5.9 per cent to 6.1 per cent).
South Australia joined WA in decreasing its proportion, with expenditure down from 15.5 per cent to 14.9 per cent and Tasmania down from 1.6 per cent to 1.1 per cent.
WA also achieved the largest increase in seasonally adjusted dollar terms between the September 2007 and December 2007 Quarters up from $11.2 million to a $290.4 million spend, an increase of 4 per cent.
The largest percentage increase was posted by Victoria, up 26.6 per cent, or $5.1 million, to $24.3 million.
Tasmania recorded the only decrease, down 3.3 per cent from $0.3 million to $8.7 million.
Policy and public affairs manager at the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies, Ian Loftus, said he was disappointed that WA had lost its grip on a historical 60 per cent proportion of the national exploration expenditure.
"Western Australia had been gradually moving back to its historical 60 or so percent of Australia's spend, but the December 2007 Quarter saw this rise cease," he said.
Nationally, seasonally adjusted exploration expenditure for the December 2007 Quarter increased by $33.7 million over the previous quarter (up from $545.0 million to $578.7 million - an increase of 6.2 per cent).
The corresponding figure for the December 2006 Quarter was $415.8 million.
Mr Loftus said that, whilst it was great that exploration expenditure across Australia had picked up, the country needed to be very careful that it did not become complacent.
"The recent release of the Fraser Institute's 2007/2008 Survey of Mining Companies showed that Australia is losing ground to other parts of the world in attracting exploration expenditure. We all need to take measures to ensure that we remain a competitive place for explorers to do business."
"Without exploration we don't get discoveries, and without discoveries we don't get new mines, and without new mines we generate the jobs, training opportunities, royalties and other taxes that benefit all Australians," he added.
Of the various commodities, mineral sands recorded the greatest percentage increase across Australia up 45.8 per cent, or $3.3 million, to $10.5 million, whilst the largest dollar increase was uranium (up $19.6 million to $69.6 million) over the period.
Iron ore recorded the largest decrease, down 14.3 per cent from $112.8 million to $98.5 million.
