South Australia has the potential to become Australia’s next mining giant.
New figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed that for the June quarter show that in 2006-07 exploration expenditure had reached $260.7 million and that South Australia’s performance is now ahead of every other State or Territory except the mining giant, Western Australia.
Expenditure in South Australia has outstripped the performance even of Queensland.
South Australia’s annual figure was a whopping 15.2% of the national total.
The State is punching well above its weight.
Year on year, the comparison is even more impressive.
In the year up to June 2006 exploration expenditure stood at $146.5 million and just 12 months later it has escalated to more than $260 million.
The latest quarterly figures suggests South Australia has not hit its speed limit.
For the June quarter, South Australia hit another all-time quarterly high of $84.1 million, which was a more than 20% rise on the previous quarter.
South Australia accounted for more than half of national spending on copper exploration and 60% of the nation’s uranium exploration.
In addition explorers in South Australia significantly increased expenditure in the search for iron ore, mineral sands and gold.
Credit must also be paid to the Rann government’s innovative partnership with the mining industry, through the internationally recognised PACE scheme, which is delivering a number of significant new mining developments to the State.
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