8412.0 - Mineral and Petroleum Exploration, Australia, Mar 2003  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 18/06/2003   
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MEDIA RELEASE

June 18, 2003
Embargoed: 11:30 AM (AEST)
61/2003

$3.1m spent on land access for mineral exploration in 2001-02

Land access expenditure in 2001-02 represented $38.1m (7.5%) of mineral exploration expenditure in areas not under production leases, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

As a percentage of mineral exploration expenditure on non-production leases, land access expenditure was highest in Queensland (9.9%), followed by Northern Territory (8.2%), Western Australia (7.8%) and South Australia (7.2%).

Western Australia contributed 62.4% ($23.8m) and Queensland 17.1% ($6.5m) of Australia's land access expenditure.

A third of land access expenditure was spent on meeting native title requirements (33.2% or $12.6m), followed by government charges (29.3% or $11.2m) and cultural heritage expenditure (13.2% or $5m).

While most expenditure was related to tasks undertaken by the exploration businesses themselves, outsourcing contributed to 26.6% of land access expenditure. The largest expenditures on outsourced tasks were for native title requirements (39.3% of outsourced expenditure or $4m) and cultural heritage (24.6% or $2.5m).

Further information is in Mineral and Petroleum Exploration, Australia, March 2003 (cat. no. 8412.0), which contains a feature article examining expenditure on land access. The article is based on the results of a survey funded by the Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources' "Regional Minerals Program".