In 2000, the US Geological Survey released its World Petroleum Assessment (2000). This assessment provided estimates of the quantities of conventional oil, gas and natural gas liquids that have the potential to be added to reserves in the period 1995-2025. The assessment was for regions outside the United States. For Australia, the Bonaparte, Browse and Gippsland Basins plus the North West SHelf were assessed.

Review of activity in the Australian minerals industry in 2009-10

Australia's nickel sulfide industry has had a fluctuating history since the discovery in 1966 of massive sulfides at Kambalda in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. Periods of buoyant nickel prices and high demand, speculative exploration, and frenetic investment (the 'nickel boom' years) have been interspersed by protracted periods of relatively depressed metal prices, exploration inactivity, and low discovery rates. Despite this unpredictable evolution, the industry has had a significant impact on the world nickel scene with Australia having a global resource of nickel metal from sulfide ores of ~12.9 Mt, five world-class deposits (>1 Mt contained Ni), and a production status of number three after Russia and Canada. More than 90% of the nation's known global resources of nickel metal from sulfide sources were discovered during the relative short period of 1966 to 1973. Australia's nickel sulfide deposits are associated with ultramafic and/or mafic igneous rocks in three major geotectonic settings: (1) Archean komatiites emplaced in rift zones of granite-greenstone belts; (2) Precambrian tholeiitic mafic-ultramafic intrusions emplaced in rift zones of Archean cratons and Proterozoic orogens; and (3) hydrothermal-remobilized deposits of various ages and settings. The komatiitic association is economically by far the most important, accounting for more than 95% of the nation's identified nickel sulfide resources. The ages of Australian komatiitic- and tholeiitic-hosted deposits generally correlate with three major global-scale nickel metallogenic events at ~3,000 Ma, ~2,700 Ma, and ~1,900 Ma. These events are interpreted to correspond to periods of juvenile crustal growth and the development of large volumes of primitive komatiitic and tholeiitic magmas caused by large-scale mantle overturn and mantle plume activities. There is considerable potential for the further discovery of komatiite-hosted deposits in Archean granite-greenstone terranes including both large, and smaller high-grade (5 to 9% Ni) deposits, that may be enriched in PGEs (2 to 5 g/t), especially where the host ultramafic sequences are poorly exposed. Analysis of the major komatiite provinces of the world reveals that fertile komatiitic sequences are generally of late Archean (~2,700 Ma) or Palaeoproterozoic (~1,900 Ma) age, have dominantly Al-undepleted (Al2O3/TiO2 = 15 to 25) chemical affinities, and often occur with sulfur-bearing country rocks in dynamic high magma-flux environments, such as compound sheet flows with internal pathways facies (Kambalda-type) or dunitic compound sheet flow facies (Mt Keith-type). Most Precambrian provinces in Australia, particularly the Proterozoic orogenic belts, contain an abundance of sulfur-saturated tholeiitic mafic±ultramafic intrusions that have not been fully investigated for their potential to host basal Ni-Cu sulfides (Voisey's Bay-type mineralization). The major exploration challenges for finding these deposits are to determine the pre-deformational geometries and younging directions of the intrusions, and to locate structural depressions in the basal contacts and feeder conduits under cover. Stratabound PGE-Ni-Cu±Cr deposits hosted by large Archean-Proterozoic layered mafic-ultramafic intrusions (Munni Munni, Panton) of tholeiitic affinity have comparable global nickel resources to many komatiite deposits, but low-grades (<0.2% Ni). There are also hydrothermal nickel sulfide deposits, including the unusual Avebury deposit in western Tasmania, and some potential for 'Noril'sk-type' Ni-Cu-PGE deposits associated with major flood basaltic provinces in western and northern Australia.

Map produced for the department of Pirimary Industries Victoria. Shows the Victorian Marine Aquaculture Fisheries Reserves around Port Philip Bay. This map is for the internal use of DPI Victoria only.

Shows operating mineral mines, deposits where development has commenced or where a decision to mine has occurred. Closed mines or mines not currently operating are generally not shown

Australian mineral exploration spending in 2006-07 rose by 38% to a record $1,714.6 million of which 36% was spent on the search for new deposits. Spending rose in all States and the Northern Territory with South Australia up by 78% to $260.7 million while Western Australia dominated with 49% of Australian mineral exploration spending. The base metal group was the dominant target accounting for 32% of exploration spending overtaking gold (27%) for the first time since 1983. Exploration results were announced for a wide range of commodities from across the country with the most significant being the announcement of a 38% increase in contained copper in the Olympic Dam deposit, South Australia, and of an initial 4 Moz resource in the Tropicana gold deposit, Western Australia.

How much oil and gas remains to be discovered? At the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) Conference in Hobart in 2001, Dr Trevor Powell, Chief of the Petroleum and Marine Division, delivered a paper discussing the future of Australia?s hydrocarbon production1. Australia has enjoyed a high level of self-sufficiency for its liquid hydrocarbon requirements but forecasts of future production suggest that as early as 2005, the level of production will drop by about 33% and by 2010, production will be down by about 50%. This production forecast includes forecast production from already developed and soon to be developed fields, as well as a component from fields yet to be discovered.

The map shows iron ore resources of Australia

The map shows Mangenese resoruces

The preliminary results of the 2002 Bonaparte Basin assessment indicate that there is a mean expectation of finding 334 million barrels of oil, 2.96 TCF of gas, and 116 million barrels of condensate in the next ten to fifteen years. This assessment represents a fall of some 41% from the 1998 oil assessment but an increase of 30% in the amount of gas. This is mainly due to the methodology attempting to model the expectation for the next ten to fifteen years rather than modelling the ultimate potential.