Gold remains the dominant sector, accounting for approximately 45% of total exploration expenditure.

Mineral exploration spending (excluding petroleum), which rose 9.9 per cent in the June quarter to an estimated $437.7 million on a seasonally adjusted basis.

There are several encouraging signs for the mining outlook in Australia.

Mining will commence in July at the Urquhart bauxite project in far north Queensland.

By the end of 2017, Yancoal Australia may become one of the top three coal producers in this country.

Things are looking up for the Australian coal industry.

For companies servicing the mining sector, project opportunities have declined significantly in the past few years.

Australia’s largest mineral-sands producer, Iluka Resources, is seeing a turnaround in prices for its products.

Today, with the gold-mining sector in good financial shape, some historic mines in the region are being revived or expanded.

Construction at Carrapateena will commence next year, with first production in 2019.

Scandium promises to be a future wonder metal. And Australia is likely to become its major source of supply.

“It’s a good time to be an Australian gold producer.”