Record mineral sales marked a strongly successful year for WA’s resources sector in 2019.
| Date: | Monday, 30 March 2020 |
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The Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS) released statistics that show the sector achieved record sales of $167.3 billion.
This 28 per cent jump from $130.3 billion in 2018 was driven by record iron ore and gold sales, a 57 per cent increase in condensate production from ramped-up LNG projects, and a strong recovery in the nickel sector.
Iron ore sales reached a record $97.7 billion, condensate production rose to $7.4 billion, gold sales hit an all-time high of $13.8 billion and nickel sales rose to $3.1 billion, their highest level in five years.
On the jobs front, WA’s mining industry employed a record 133,094 workers, up from 120,511 in 2018.
The strong performance by WA’s resources sector last year was underscored by industry confidence which boosted the value of resource projects in the pipeline in WA. As of March this year, these projects were estimated to be worth $118.4 billion, up significantly from the September 2019 estimate of $107.9 billion.
The value of projects under construction or committed to was around $27.2 billion, up from $25.4 billion and planned or possible projects increased from $82.4 billion to $91.1 billion
