Introduction
Mining is the largest sector of the Australian economy: 14.6% as of July 20231. In these pages I explore Australian mining output using data compiled by Gavin Mudd and described in A Comprehensive dataset for Australian mine production 1799 to 2021 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02275-z. The data includes metals (e.g., gold, silver), ores (e.g., bauxite, iron ore), energy resources (coal), and gemstones (e.g., diamonds).
I wanted to know:
- What are the primary commodities mined in Australia (by amount and by value)
- Which commodities are at or near peak production? Peak production value?
- How volatile have prices been over the last 100 years in constant dollars?
- What is the range of prices of these commodities?
To answer the first question here: The top three commodities by mass in 2021 were iron ore, coal, and bauxite, together making up about 97% of 2021 production (Figure 1.1, Table 1.1). In terms of value, the top three were iron ore, coal, and gold with a combined value of about 88% of the total value of production (Figure 3.1, Table 3.1).
Commenting on “Table 5 Cumulative Australian mine production by major time period and metal and mineral”, Mudd notes2:
For Table 5), the two most important observations are the increasing diversity of metals and minerals produced over time and the rapidly increasing scales of production across most commodities.
The paper includes specific notes on each commodity, which I will not repeat here. Most amounts are expressed in the mass unit dry metric tonnes: \(1\ tonne = 1\ Mg = 10^6 g\). In plots showing amounts, units are appended to the product name: tonnes (t), kg, and carets.
Limitations
While Mudd provided 223 years of data, I use only the most recent 100 years (1922-2021), which is the period for which I have Consumer Price Index data from the Reserve Bank of Australia and thus can convert prices and value to constant 2021 dollars.
The numbers in this analysis are likely to diverge from more authoritative sources. See discussion in Section 4 Triangulating with more authoritative sources in the Notes.
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Pointers
Special thanks to Jeremy Singer-Vine for mentioning this data set in his Data is Plural newsletter 2023.07.12 edition
And lastly, if you visit Sydney, I highly recommend the Australian Museum where (among other things) you can “be dazzled by over 1800 spectacular rocks and minerals.”
–Daniel
https://www.rba.gov.au/education/resources/snapshots/economy-composition-snapshot/ retrieved 2023-07-21; see also “In numbers: how mining came to be Australia’s most profitable sector” by JP Casey Published 15 March, 2021 https://www.mining-technology.com/features/in-numbers-how-mining-came-to-be-australias-most-profitable-sector/ retrieved 2023-07-21 ↩︎