Australia's Identified Mineral Resources is an annual nationwide assessment which takes a long term view of mineral resources likely to be available for mining. The highest category in the national inventory is Economic Demonstrated Resources (EDR), which in essence, combines the Joint Ore Reserve Committee (JORC) Code categories of ore reserves and most of the Measured and Indicated Resources. JORC Code ore reserves of commodities are included for comparison, which provide a short to medium-term view of mineral stocks. The assessment also includes evaluations of long-term trends in mineral resources, world rankings, summaries of significant exploration results, and brief reviews of mining industry developments.

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.

The map shows iron ore resources of Australia

The maps show Australian manganese resources by regions and deposit types

The map contains two sheets. Sheet 1 shows resources by regions and Sheet 2 shows uranium deposit types

Australia's Identified Mineral Resources 2010 presents estimates of Australia's mineral resources at end of December 2009 for all major and several minor mineral commodities (Table 1) based on published and unpublished data available to Geoscience Australia. These resource estimates provide a long term view of what is likely to be mined. They are compared with national totals of ore reserves for each commodity, which provides the industry view of what is likely to be mined in the short to medium term. Mine production data are based on figures from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences. World ranking of Australia's mineral resources have been calculated mainly from information in publications of the United States Geological Survey. A summary of significant industry developments also is presented. Australia's Identified Mineral Resources 2010 provides information on and analysis of mineral exploration expenditures in Australia for 2008-09 and the calendar year 2009. Trends in expenditure are presented and discussed.

Australia's mineral resources are an important component of its wealth, and a long term perspective of what is likely to be available for mining is a prerequisite for formulating sound policies on resources and land-access. The national resource stocks are quantified in the annual online publication: Australia's Identified Mineral Resources: http://www.australianminesatlas.gov.au/aimr/index.jsp, which provides Geoscience Australia's assessments based on its national mineral resource classification system. This paper summarises Australia's national classification system for Identified Mineral Resources. Estimating global stocks of mineral and energy commodities is becoming increasingly important. This requires mapping of categories between the various the mineral and energy classification systems in use, and rationalising these systems where feasible. This paper also outlines how Australia's national system correlates with other mineral and energy resource classification systems.

A medium term forecast of undiscovered hydrocarbon resources for the Bonaparte Basin has been generated by Geoscience Australia and reveals that there is the potential to discover 56 gigalitres (350 million barrels) of oil, 82 billion cubic metres (2.9 trillion cubic feet) of gas, and 18 gigalitres (115 million barrels) of condensate in the next ten to fifteen years.

Australian mineral exploration spending in 2007-081 rose by 41% to a record $2461.4 million2 of which 44% was spent on the search for new deposits3. Spending rose in all States and the Northern Territory; Western Australia dominated with 51% of Australian mineral exploration spending. Base metals were the dominant target with 32% of exploration spending while gold was the major commodity sought with 24% of total spending. Exploration results were announced for a wide range of commodities from across the country with significant increases in resources at the Prominent Hill copper-gold project in South Australia, Cadia gold-copper project in New South Wales, Cloncurry copper and gold project in Queensland and the Solomon iron ore project in Western Australia. High-grade nickel intersections were reported from the Spotted Quoll and Lounge Lizard deposits in Western Australia.

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.