DMP has released preliminary resources statistics for 2014.
| Date: | Monday, 30 March 2015 |
|---|
WA remains the nation’s leading mining investment destination, despite drop in iron ore price.
The Department of Mines and Petroleum has today released 2014 calendar year statistics for the State’s resources sector.
General Manager Policy and Coordination Richard Borozdin said the value of Western Australia’s minerals and petroleum industry in 2014 reached just over $114 billion.
“This represents a decline of less than one per cent based on the adjusted figures for 2013, which is a good result given the challenging economic climate the industry faced last year,” Mr Borozdin said.
Western Australia remains the nation’s leading mining investment destination.
“Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show the State’s mining industry invested $46 billion in 2014, which represents 55 per cent of the total national capital spending,” Mr Borozdin said.
Iron ore remained that State’s highest value commodity despite the sharp drop in iron ore prices in the second half of the year.
The $65 billion of iron ore sales accounted for 75 per cent of total mineral sales in 2014.
Mr Borozdin said that while the value of iron ore sales decreased by six per cent from 2013, project expansions and strong demand from China saw the sector achieve record export quantities.
“There were 697 million tonnes of iron ore exported during 2014, which is 25 per cent more than was exported during the previous calendar year,” Mr Borozdin said.
The State’s petroleum sector, which includes crude oil, condensate, LNG, natural gas and LPG, increased in value by almost 12 per cent in 2014 to be valued at $27.6 billion.
“Although recent falls in commodity prices have also caused some mining companies to re-evaluate their investment positions the dominance of the resources sector in the nation’s economy is expected to continue,” said Mr Borozdin.
“This is due to the number of projects which have been expanded or developed, in particular iron ore and LNG.”
DMP collects and prepares statistics on the State’s mining and petroleum industry and publishes this information every six months. The information released today precedes the 2014 statistics digest which will be published next month.
The latest statistics release is available on the DMP website.
