Geographical Spread of Australian Mining Industry Output
With Australia's known abundance of mineral wealth, its resources sector ranks amongst the top five producers of the world's key mineral commodities. According to the IBISWorld Industry Report, 2008, Australia is:
• the world's leading producer of bauxite and alumina, ilmenite, rutile and zircon, synthetic rutile and tantalum
• the second largest producer of iron ore, lead, uranium, diamonds (by weight) and zinc
• the third largest producer of silver and nickel
• the fourth largest producer of black coal, gold and manganese
• the fifth largest producer of aluminium, copper and lignite.
Australia is also the world's largest exporter of black coal, bauxite, lead and mineral sands, the second largest exporter of alumina, iron ore and uranium and it is the third largest exporter of aluminium and gold.
The geographical spread of mining industry output, on a value basis, can be depicted as follows:
Mineral and metal deposits are found all over Australia, with the most concentrated occurrences identified so far in Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales.
Western Australia accounts for the largest share of mining output at 44% by value and mainly consists of gold, oil and gas, diamonds, nickel and iron ore. Queensland and New South Wales primarily mine black coal and a range of metallic minerals.