Mining in Western Australia

History

Mining transformed Western Australia economy. Gold finds in the 1890s brought unprecedented amounts of people and capital to WA.

Gold mining declined after 1904, and Western Australia went through a painful period of structural adjustment over the course of the following three decades during which time two world wars, an international depression and a major drought complicated the state's economic development. Mining began to take off again in the 1930s, however at the time the state governments' focus was in agricultural expansion and manufacturing initiatives. The primary sector would experience strong growth until the early 1970s, after which it leveled off. More than a million hectares of marginal agricultural land was abandoned, and the government turned to mining as the state's main economic priority.

The period after 1945 has been characterised by the development of the State’s mining sector into a world-scale industry and Western Australia’s increasing access to the rest of the world. Communication and transport advances brought Western Australia much closer to the rest of the world, providing opportunities for local producers to access markets in other countries much more easily. On the other hand, overseas producers could access the Western Australian market relatively more readily. The outcome has been a highly specialised and trade-dependent Western Australian economy (with mining and mineral processing the dominant industries), using income derived to import many other goods and services.

The State’s second major resource boom was stimulated when, in 1960, the Commonwealth Government lifted the iron ore export embargo that had been in place since 1938. Demand was fuelled by the buoyant Japanese economy and Japanese, American and British investment flowed into the State. While Asia had previously been a market for Western Australian products (notably sandalwood and wool), the export of iron ore to Japan marked a fundamental shift in Western Australia’s trade dynamic and paved the way for the development of Asia as the State’s most important trading region.

Prior to the resurgence of the resource sector, economic conditions had been relatively subdued, with constant-price household income per capita roughly the same in 1960-61 as in 1948-49. However, the mining boom caused income per capita to more than double by 1973-74. Importantly, while iron ore was (and remains) a significant component of the mining industry, one important aspect of the resources boom in the 1960s that set it apart from the gold rush, was the diversity of commodities being mined. There were major discoveries of nickel, petroleum, bauxite and alumina, which all developed into significant industries in the 1960s and 1970s. There was also a major revival in the mining of gold in the 1980s, stimulated by price increases associated with the end of the gold standard in 1971, high inflation throughout the 1970s and new processing technology.

Timeline

Iron ore

Iron ore mining in Western Australia, in the financial year 2008-09, accounted for 47 percent of the total value of the states resources, with a value of A$33.56 billion. The overall value of the mineral and petroleum industry in Western Australia was A$71.3 billion in 2008-09, a 19 percent increase compare to the previous financial year. Iron ore in Western Australia experienced unprecedented growth in 2008-09, with the states output growing by 8.5 percent, to 316 million tonnes of ore. In terms of value, the industry grew by 53 percent. The bulk of Western Australian ore went to China, which imported 64 percent of the 2008-09 production, followed by Japan with 21 percent. The boom of the last decade was however somewhat slowed in 2009, when the value of the industry fell by 12 percent compare to the previous calendar year, and this despite record production of 342 million tonnes of ore.

In the calendar year 2009, the Western Australian Government received over A$1.7 billion in royalties from the iron ore mining industry in the state.

Iron ore mining in Western Australia is predominantly, but not exclusively, carried out in the Pilbara region, which produced ore in value of A$26.82 billion in 2009, out of an overall iron ore production value of A$28.1 billion for the state.

Petroleum

Petroleum, like mining, falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Mines and Petroleum, but is otherwise not directly related to mining. Crude Oil and Condensate reached a value of A$8.7 billion in 2009, while LNG achieved a value of A$6.3 billion in 2009.

Gold

The history of gold mining in Western Australia dates back to the 1880s but took on some larger dimensions in the 1890s, after gold discoveries at Coolgardie in 1892 and Kalgoorlie in 1893. It reached an early peak in 1903, experienced a golden era in the 1930s and a revival in the mid-1980s. In between, the industry declined a number of times, like during the two world wars, experiencing an absolute low point in 1976.

In 2009, Gold delivered a stand-out performance, recording a record value of A$5.7 billion, a 29 percent increase in comparison to the previous calendar year. Gold production in the state increased by 9 percent, reaching 4.6 million ounces in 2009.

Alumina

The Darling Scarp contains considerable deposits of bauxite, and these have been mined by Alcoa and Worsley Alumina for the production of alumina.

Alcoa's first bauxite mine at Jarrahdale was opened in 1963 to service the Kwinana alumina refinery. 168 million tonnes of bauxite was mined from Jarrahdale until its closure in 1998. The Huntly mine was established in the early 1970s to supply bauxite for both the Kwinana and Pinjarra refineries. It is currently the biggest bauxite mine in the world. The Wagerup refinery is serviced by the Willowdale bauxite mine, established in 1984.

Worsley Alumina constructed a mine site and refinery in the early 1980s. The mine site is located near Boddington and the bauxite is transported by a 51 km conveyor belt to the refinery at Worsley. Following a A$1 billion expansion in 2000, Worsley now export 3.1 million tonnes of alumina.

In 2009, Western Australia produced 12.4 million tonnes of Alumina, at a value of A$3.6 billion, a reduction in value by 27 percent.

Nickel

The Western Australian Nickel industry suffered from falling international prices in 2009. Nickel production had been reasonably steady, the value of the industry had decreased from a peak A$6.9 billion in 2007 to under 3.3 billion in 2009. Also, the number of employees fell from a peak 13,307 in 2008 to 7,561 in 2009.

A large number of Nickel mines in the state were placed in care and maintenance at the end of 2008 because of falling international prices.

The discovery in Kambalda, Western Australia in 1966, Mount Windarra in 1969 and Agnew in 1971 coinciding with rising world nickel prices and a prolonged strike at a major nickel in Canada, meant that the discoveries were rapidly developed, bringing about a "nickel boom" between 1967 and 1971.

Base metals

The value of the Base Metal production in the state declined by 12 percent in 2009.

The largest Base Metal producing mine in Western Australia is the Golden Grove Mine.

Copper

Western Australian output of copper increased by ten percent in 2009, having grown from just over 34,000 tonnes per annum in 2000 to 142,490 tonnes by 2009, with a brief dip in production in 2004 due to the closure of the Lennard Shelf mine. In 2009 however, world Copper prices fell by 26 percent, causing the industry in the state to lose 11 percent of its value.

Lead

Lead mining in Western Australia experienced a boom in 2009, almost doubling its production. This was caused by the reopening of the Magellan mine. Overall, the states Lead production in the last ten years has been very varied, reaching a peak of 91,380 tonnes in 2001, falling to 1,170 tonnes in 2004 because of the closure of the Lennard Shelf mine, before reaching another peak in 2006 and a low in 2008.

Zinc

Zinc experienced a drop in production and prices in 2009, output in Western Australia falling by 33 percent and the value of the industry decreasing by 35 percent.

Because of the nature of Zinc and Lead, which are often found together, Zinc has experienced the same ups and downs in production as Lead in the last decade.

Coal

Coal in Western Australia is currently, as of 2009, mined at only one location, at Collie, where two mines are operating. Ninety percent of all coal mined at Collie is used in power stations, the remainder in the Mineral Sands production. While a small amount of Western Australian coal has been exported to India and China in recent years, the majority goes to the coal-fired power stations, mainly located in the Collie area as well.

Coal production in the state has been quite steady in the past decade, with the 2009 production of 6.56 million tonnes being only three percent less than in 2008. Like production, the value of the Western Australian coal industry has remained reasonably constant, too, with a slight increase to A$308 million in 2009.

Diamonds

The bulk of diamonds produced in Western Australia originate from the Argyle diamond mine, located in the far north of the state. The mine produces around 20 percent of the global diamond output and commenced mining in 1985. The mines most famous product is its pink diamonds, of which it produces around 90 percent of the worlds supply, which is, however, only one percent of the mines overall production. Apart from Argyle, there is only one other operating diamond mine in the state, the Ellendale mine, located 100 km east of Derby, which opened in 2002. Ellendale produces the rare yellow diamonds.

In 2009, sale volumes for diamonds fell by 44 percent while the value of the industry in the state decreased by 53 percent in comparison to 2008.

Salt

Eighty percent of all salt produced in Australia comes from Western Australia. Of the state's production, 77 percent, in turn, originates from Dampier Salt Limited's operations at Dampier, Port Hedland and Lake MacLeod in the Pilbara. Other mining locations in the state include Onslow, Koolyanobbing and Esperance.

While the overall salt production in Western Australia dropped by 19 percent in 2009, to 9.5 million tonnes, the value of the industry increased dramatically, by 59 percent, to A$432 million.

Other commodities

Tungsten is mined at Cookes Creek mine in the Pilbara region.

Asbestos

Blue asbestos was discovered at Wittenoom Gorge in the 1930s by Lang Hancock and claimed as a mining tenement in 1934. The mine supplied much of the world's demand for asbestos until it closed in 1966 due to health concerns for its workers.

The production or use of asbestos is now banned in Australia.

Uranium

The Western Australian ban on uranium mining was lifted in 2008, after the 2008 state elections, which saw the Liberal Party of Australia replaced in government by the Australian Labor Party.

No uranium mining currently takes place in the state and developing projects were not scheduled to enter their mining phase before 2012-13.

Five projects are in the approval process, the Lake Maitland uranium project, Toro Energy's Lake Way uranium project, Cameco's Yeelirrie uranium project and Kintyre uranium project, and Energy and Minerals Australia has referred the Mulga Rocks uranium project. Given the low uranium price none of these projects are progressing in the short term.

Lake Way, Lake Maitland and Yeelirrie are located within 100 km of Wiluna.

Safety

In the past decade, from 2001 to 2010, 42 employees have lost their lives in the state's mining industry. Of those, gold and iron ore have been the most dangerous, with 14 fatalities each, followed by nickel, with nine. Of the 42 fatalities, 29 have occurred at the surface and 13 in underground mining.

Since 1943, the year the Department of Mines records date back to, to 2010, 657 work-related fatalities have occurred in the mining industry in the state.

Statistics

Annual statistics for the Western Australian mining industry:

Production

Commodities measured in million tonnes per annum:

Commodities measured in tonnes per annum:

Commodities measured in million carats per annum:

Commodities measured in kilogram per annum:

Value

Commodities at an annual production value of A$ billion:

Commodities at an annual production value of A$ million:

Employees

Employment figures for the major commodities and overall figures for the complete mining industry:

Official reports