australia's identified mineral resources 2004 - Geoscience Australia
australia's identified mineral resources 2004 - Geoscience Australia
australia's identified mineral resources 2004 - Geoscience Australia
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AUSTRALIA’S IDENTIFIED MINERAL RESOURCES <strong>2004</strong><br />
FIGURE 4A. <strong>Australia</strong>n <strong>mineral</strong> exploration expenditures in constant 2002–03 dollars<br />
(Based on ABS data deflated by Consumer Price Index).<br />
FIGURE 4B. <strong>Australia</strong>n <strong>mineral</strong> exploration expenditures for commodities grouped as<br />
‘others’ in Figure 4A. Expenditures in constant 2002–03 dollars (Based on ABS data deflated<br />
by Consumer Price Index).<br />
78<br />
Exploration Drilling<br />
In 2002–03, according to ABS, exploration drilling rose by 6.7% to 5.16 million metres, an increase<br />
of 324 000 m. Of the total metres drilled, 31.5% was in ‘Production Areas’, which was a greater<br />
proportion than the 29% of the previous two years.<br />
World Exploration<br />
The Metals Economics Group’s (MEG) world survey of non-ferrous <strong>mineral</strong> exploration budgets for<br />
2003 reported an increase of 26% to an estimated total budget of US$2.4 billion. For exploration in<br />
<strong>Australia</strong>, budgets of respondents to the MEG survey rose by 11% to US$339.3 million. This increase<br />
was less than in other mining nations, so <strong>Australia</strong>’s share of the world budgets fell to 15.5% (Fig. 5)<br />
from 17.6% in 2002. Canada was again the leading country with 21.5% of world budgets.
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