AUSTRALIA’S IDENtiFIED MINEral RESOurCES 2008 AUSTRALIA’S IDENTIFIED MINERAL RESOURCES 2008 Australian Government Geoscience Australia Resources, Energy and Tourism Portfolio Minister for Resources, Energy and Tourism: The Hon. Martin Ferguson AM, MP Geoscience Australia Chief Executive Officer: Dr Neil Williams © Commonwealth of Australia, 2008 This work is copyright. Apart from any fair dealings for the purposes of study, research, criticism, or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Copyright is the responsibility of the Chief Executive Officer, Geoscience Australia. Requests and enquiries should be directed to the Chief Executive Officer, Geoscience Australia, GPO Box 378, Canberra ACT 2601. ABN: 80 091 799 039. Geoscience Australia has tried to make the information in this product as accurate as possible. However, it does not guarantee that the information is totally accurate or complete. Therefore, you should not rely solely on this information when making a commercial decision. ISSN 1327-1466 Bibliographic reference: Geoscience Australia 2008. Australia’s Identified Mineral Resources 2008. Geoscience Australia, Canberra. FRONT COVER: Hope Downs iron ore mining operations, Western Australia (Rio Tinto Iron Ore Pty Ltd). DESIGN AND LAYOUT: Henry Pippan, Geospatial Applications and Visualisation (GAV) Geoscience Australia AUSTRALIA’S IDENTIFIED MINERAL RESOURCES 2008 Foreword Geoscience Australia provides important information on Australia’s future capacity to produce mineral resources. Australia’s Identified Mineral Resources is an annual nation-wide assessment which takes a long term view of what is potentially economic. Data on mining company estimates of ore reserves (JORC Code), which are generally based on short to medium-term commercial considerations, are included for comparison. The assessment also includes evaluations of long-term trends in mineral resources, international rankings, summaries of significant exploration results, brief reviews of mining industry developments and an analysis of mineral exploration expenditure across Australia. Comparable information on petroleum resources is published in another Geoscience Australia publication, Oil and Gas Resources of Australia. Australia’s Identified Mineral Resources provides technical information on mineral and energy resources, which is used in the formulating of Australian Government policies and is reproduced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. It also provides government, industry, the investment sector and general community with an informed understanding of Australia’s known mineral endowment and the level of exploration activity. Australia’s resource stocks remain healthy overall, although there has been a levelling off of resource trends for several major commodities. Reflecting strong world demand for mineral resources, expansions in mine production of bauxite, coking coal, iron ore and other commodities continued in 2007. The ‘minerals boom’ in the Australian economy continued during 2007 and the mining industry contributed substantively to Australia’s prosperity – economically, environmentally and socially. The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics reported that in calendar year 2007, the value of Australia’s exports of mineral and energy commodities (excluding petroleum and gas) was $90.5 billion, which represented about 42% of the value of total exports of goods and services from Australia. The ability of Australia’s minerals sector to sustain its strong recent growth remains dependent on effective exploration leading to the discovery and development of new ore deposits. Successful exploration outcomes rely heavily on continuing updates of pre-competitive geoscience data by government agencies. State-of- the-art geoscientific syntheses and integrated research are needed to reduce exploration risks in prospective frontier regions. Australia’s Identified Mineral Resources and other fundamental data on the minerals sector can be accessed through the online Atlas of Australia’s Mineral Resources, Mines and Processing Centres (www. australianminesatlas.gov.au). The atlas has a web-based geographic information system format and shows the location of mineral and energy resources, mines and production/processing centres. As with other major sectors of the Australian economy, it is imperative that governments retain access to a comprehensive set of data that is fundamental to evidence-based mineral policy and to sustaining a strong minerals industry. In recent years, the ability of the Australian, State and Northern Territory governments to access mineral resource data and analyse trends has been inhibited by the rapid increase in the number of foreign-listed, private and private equity companies involved in mining and mineral exploration in Australia. Only companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) are required to publicly report on the ore reserves and mineral resources they control. As public reporting provides the basic information for the national minerals inventory, the Ministerial Council on Mineral and Petroleum Resources has established a Resource Reporting Committee to prepare recommendations in relation to reporting on mineral resources and mine production controlled by companies not listed on the ASX. Geoscience Australia is participating in i the work of the committee. Neil Williams Chief Executive Officer Geoscience Australia AUSTRALIA’S IDENTIFIED MINERAL RESOURCES 2008 Contents Foreword ....................................................................i Summary . 1 Introduction ..................................................................2 Trends in Australia’s Economic Demonstrated Resources of Major Mineral Commodities ..........5 COMMODITY REVIEWS Bauxite . 12 Black coal . 14 Brown coal . .21 Coal bed methane . 23 Coal to liquids ...............................................................24 Copper.....................................................................25 Diamond . .29 Gold . 30 Iron ore ....................................................................34 Lithium.....................................................................41 Magnesite...................................................................42 Manganese ore ...............................................................43 Mineral sands ................................................................45 Molybdenum . 50 Nickel .....................................................................51 Niobium....................................................................55 Phosphate . 56 Rare earths ..................................................................58 Shale oil....................................................................60 Tantalum . .61 Thorium....................................................................62 Tin........................................................................67 Tungsten . .69 Uranium....................................................................70 Vanadium...................................................................77 Zinc, lead, silver..............................................................79 PRODUCTION AND RESOURCE LIFE Production and resource life .....................................................85 EXPLORATION Overview ...................................................................89 Review.....................................................................90 Exploration Stage .............................................................90 Exploration Drilling . .91 Calendar Year 2007............................................................91 ii Exploration Outcomes . .92 World Exploration.............................................................92 Outlook for Exploration . 93 OFFSHORE MINERAL EXPLORATION IN COMMONWEALTH WATERS . 93 APPENDICES Appendix 1: Abbreviations and Acronyms ...........................................94 Appendix 2: National Classification System for Identified Mineral Resources..................95 Appendix 3: Staff and Commodity Responsibilities: AIMR 2008 and Related Projects ..........100 AUSTRALIA’S IDENTIFIED MINERAL RESOURCES 2008 TABLES Table 1: Australia’s resources of major minerals and world figures as at 31 December 2007. Table 2: Australian gold production 2003 to 2007. Table 3: Estimated thorium resources by country. Table 4: World and Australia’s thorium resources according to deposit type (modified after OECD/ NEA & IAEA (2006)). Table 5: Correlation of resource classification schemes for uranium. Table 6: Uranium resources in States and the Northern Territory at December 2007. Table 7: Olympic Dam Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves. Table 8: Australian production and exports of selected mineral commodities for 2006 and 2007. Table 9: Years of accessible economic demonstrated resources (AEDR) at the production level for the year (rounded to nearest 5 years). FIGURES Figure 1: Trends in Economic Demonstrated Resources (EDR) for major commodities since 1975. Figure 2: Australian mineral exploration expenditures by commodity in constant 2006–07 dollars (Based on ABS data deflated by Consumer Price Index series). Figure 3: Australian mineral exploration expenditures, excluding gold and base metals, in constant 2006–07 dollars (Based on ABS data deflated by Consumer Price Index series). Figure 4: Australian mineral exploration spending by commodity (Source: ABS). Figure 5: Australian mineral exploration