australia's identified mineral resources 2004 - Geoscience Australia

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AUSTRALIA’S IDENTIFIED MINERAL RESOURCES 2004 Production and Resource Life Australia’s production of selected mineral resources, concentrates and metals for 2003–04 are presented in Table 4. Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) reported that minerals and energy commodities for which mine production rose significantly in 2003–04 compared with 2002–03 were manganese ore (up 24%), magnesite (23%), iron ore (12%), brown coal (5%) and black coal (3%). More than half of Australia’s major mineral and energy commodities recorded production decreases in 2002–03, the most substantial being for tin (down 77%), rutile concentrates (26%), diamonds (24%), zinc (11%), copper (10%) and gold (6%). ABARE reported that Australia’s export earnings from mineral resources fell to $52.2 billion in 2003–04, a decrease of $2.8 billion or 5% compared with 2002–03. This weaker performance mainly reflected lower prices for about 80% of the minerals and energy commodities exported, largely as a result of the strong Australian dollar in 2003–04. To sustain these export earnings and maintain Australia’s position as one of the world’s leading minerals producers, resources need to be discovered and developed for production at rates sufficient to meet demand. To facilitate assessment of the future supply capability of identified resources, ratios of AEDR to current mine production have been provided in the commodity reviews above, as an indicator of the resource life. This indicator can change quite rapidly, for example with significant changes in production rates and metal prices. Iron ore provides a good example of how resource life can vary markedly over a short period: increasing production in response to growing demand from Asia, has been a major factor contributing to the iron ore resource life halving from 125 years in 1995 to 60 years in 2003. AEDR of the other main bulk mineral commodities can sustain current rates of mine production on average for the following approximate periods years: black coal 100 years, bauxite 90 years, manganese ore 25 years, and brown coal 450 years. Ratios of AEDR to current mine production for other minerals indicate a resource life of: nickel 120 years, copper 50 years, ilmenite 85 years, rutile 90 years and zircon 50 years. The resource lives for gold (just under 20 years at current rates of production), lead (less than 30 years) and zinc (less than 25 years) are amongst the lowest. Gold price increases over many years have contributed to increasing expenditure on gold exploration since 1980. Despite the fact that there has been a progressive increase in Australia’s EDR of gold since the mid-1980s, there is still a need for ongoing successful gold exploration in the short and medium terms to discover sufficient resources to maintain gold as one of Australia’s main export commodities. 72 Similarly, there is a need for significant new discoveries of lead and zinc in the not too distant future to sustain production of these commodities at current levels beyond the next 25 years, when almost all existing base metal mines will have closed. In addition, there is usually a period of about 10 years between the initial discovery of a deposit and the commencement of production for large lead-zinc projects. The success of fine grinding technology has allowed the economic extraction of base metals from the McArthur River and Mount Isa deposits and resulted in increases in EDR. However, there is a need to discover and develop a high quality, metallurgically attractive lead-zinc deposit.
AUSTRALIA’S IDENTIFIED MINERAL RESOURCES 2004 TABLE 4. Australian production and exports of selected mineral products 2003–04. Commodity Production Exports Export value $ million Aluminium Bauxite (Mt) 56.316 173 Alumina (Mt) 16.796 13.538 3767 Aluminium (Mt) 1.880 1.546 3435 Coal Black raw (Mt) 362.22 Black saleable (Mt) 285.86 219.46 10 893 Brown 67.86 Copper Ores and concentrates (kt) 2340 1288 1237 Refined primary (kt) 458 301 929 Diamond (kc) 24 310 26 667 531 Gold Mine production (t) 260 Refined (t) (a) 397 315 5510 Iron and Steel Ore and Pellets (Mt) 222.28 194.853 5216 Iron and steel (Mt) 9.445 3.818 2049 Lead Ores and concentrates (kt) 960 417 385 Refined (kt) 247 231 199 Bullion (kt) 143 113 139 Manganese Ores and concentrates (kt) 3062 2603 385 Mineral sands Ilmenite concentrates (kt) 1925 782 82 Rutile concentrates (kt) 154 146 95 Synthetic rutile (kt) 696 470 255 Titanium dioxide pigment (kt) 196 165 399 Zircon concentrates (kt) 451 426 240 Nickel Concentrate (kt Ni) 185 Refined (kt) 234 (b) 215 3088 (c) Uranium (t U 3 O 8 ) 9538 9099 364 Zinc Ores and concentrates (kt) 2536 1855 673 Refined (kt) 499 396 557 73 Notes for Table 4 Source: Australian Mineral Statistics, ABARE, June quarter 2004 Australian Commodities ABARE, September 2004 t = tonnes; kt = 10 3 t; Mt = 10 6 t; kc = 10 3 carats (a) Includes primary and secondary gold of Australian and overseas origin (b) Sum of products in the Intermediate nickel, 99% Ni categories (c) Sum of all nickel product export values.
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Page 71: Pouring copper anodes, Olympic Dam
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