Geoscience Australia supporting Australia’s critical minerals future
Page last updated:30 October 2026
Geoscience Australia is helping build the geological understanding of Australia’s critical minerals potential, supporting the Australian Government’s updated Critical Minerals Strategy.
The Australian Government has released an updated Critical Minerals Strategy, refining its focus on areas that can offer the greatest economic and strategic value to Australia and continuing to guide the sector to 2030.
Critical minerals are essential to technologies underpinning modern life, including clean energy, transport and advanced technologies.
The updated strategy responds to a changed global environment, including increased geopolitical tensions, trade restrictions and supply chain disruptions affecting critical minerals.
The Strategy continues to be delivered through six focus areas, which are largely the same, with minor updates to reflect the changed operating environment.
Geoscience Australia plays an important role in supporting Australia’s critical minerals ambitions. We maintain Australia’s critical mineral inventory and provide the geological and precompetitive geoscience data, knowledge and analysis needed to better understand the nation’s critical mineral potential, supporting decisions and investment in exploration, and future discoveries.
Geoscience Australia staff examine a quartz sample in the Mount Isa region to assess its potential as a source of high purity silica
Building Australia’s understanding of its resources
Through the Australian Government’s $3.4 billion, 35-year Resourcing Australia’s Prosperity initiative, Geoscience Australia is working with state and territory geological surveys to improve the understanding of Australia’s mineral, energy and groundwater potential.
This includes investigating the geological potential for critical minerals and strategic materials and identifying opportunities in Australia’s underexplored regions through precompetitive geoscience data and information that is is also made publicly available.
Over the next 3 decades, Resourcing Australia’s Prosperity will continue to stimulate exploration and accelerate discovery and development of Australia’s critical minerals and other resources. Particularly for underexplored regions where gaps in precompetitive geoscience data and information have historically constrained investment.
Geoscience Australia also provides national mineral resource information, maps and datasets that support decision-making by governments, industry and other partners.
As Australia works to strengthen its position in global critical minerals supply chains, trusted geoscience will continue to provide an important foundation for future exploration, discovery and responsible resource development.
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