Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show more than $1.3 billion was spent looking for mineral deposits in WA last year — the biggest spend in five years and up 18 per cent on the previous year.
Nearly half of that was spent on gold, with a record $641 million spent searching for the precious metal last year.Australia's largest gold producers Association of Mining and Exploration Companies CEO Warren Pearce said Federal and State Governments needed to invest more in exploration. "Australia needs greater greenfields mineral exploration to discover future mines, and there is a real need to increase mineral exploration as the discovery rate has been in slow decline for the last decade," Mr Pearce said.
"Each new discovery that leads to a mine creates jobs, royalties and government revenues as well as a wide range of economic and community benefits."
The ABC seems to always talk down enterprise and effort by hard working Australians. Lucky for this country, exploration is once again booming with hundreds of promising “shows” being reported, and not all in the traditional remote areas, either.
well that's a given. the world and all its resources are finite. Pity the greedy people haven't realised that yet or don't want to.