11 August 2000  —  00/341

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Australia's Minerals Wealth Revealed

The release today of a map of Australia's major mineral deposits and related population infrastructure will provide valuable information to those involved in the minerals sector, land use and policy areas, Warren Entsch, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry, Science and Resources said today.

"The map — Australia's Mines and Major Mineral Deposits — shows more than 900 of Australia's major current and historic mines and includes primary information on mineral deposits that are still to be developed," Mr Enstch said.

The map, produced by Geoscience Australia for the Minerals Council of Australia identifies the location, name and type of commodity found in the nation's major mineral deposits.

Mr Entsch described the map as an important tool for anyone working in the mineral exploration industry or with interests in the mineral resources sector.

"The map is also an excellent national resource for school teachers, showing the contemporary and historic role mining has played in the development of Australia's economy," he said.

"Australia is one of the world's leading sources of mineral wealth, attracting nearly 20 per cent of all global mineral exploration expenditure, more than any other single country.

"The map illustrates Australia's percentage of world economic resources and its world ranking in 1998 for each of the major mineral commodities. This is a new feature added to the map since its initial release in 1998.

"A further breakdown has been included of the mineral sector's contribution to Australia's national export earnings over the last decade," Mr Entsch said.

Data has been extracted from Geoscience Australia's national minerals database, OZMIN and overlayed on information from the Geological Regions of Australia dataset.

The infrastructure information includes population centres, major road and rail networks, oil and gas fields and pipelines, oil refineries, major export ports and power generating sites, rivers, lakes and cultural features.

The map has been updated since it was originally produced in 1998 and includes three enlargements of the heavily mineralised areas near:

• Kalgoorlie in Western Australia,
• Pine Creek in the Northern Territory and
• the Hunter Valley in New South Wales.

The map is available as a full colour wall map at 1:5 000 000 scale (1190mm × 870mm) and in a smaller version (570mm × 415mm) primarily designed as a teaching resource for schools and the wider community.

Both maps are available from the Minerals Council of Australia, phone (02) 6279 3600 or fax (02) 6279 3699.

Electronic copies of map insets showing the mineralised areas and related infrastructure of the Hunter Valley and Kalgoorlie regions are available from Heather Wallace, Geoscience Australia.

CMR 401-00