The resources industry in Australia (icluding oil and gas) is Australia's largest eport earner, contributing A$ 54,9 billion to the economy, about 8% of GDP in 2002 to 2003. Minerals production annd primary minerals processing contributed A$43,8 billion of the total (5.6% of GDP).
The Australasian mining sector, with Australia being one of the world's major mining countries, was particularly badly affected by the slump in commodity prices in the late 1990s. The low gold price has seen exploration expenditure in Australia decrease by as much as 30%. In 1990 Australia's resource stocks generated 32% of sharemarket traffic tumbling to around 13% in 1999.
However, foreign companies, especially South African and North American ones have entered the Australian scene. Australia needs to remain competitive on the local mining and exploration front. Since 2002 Australian exploration companies have increased with over 50 new listings on the ASX since 2003.
With the nickel price at all time highs, Lateritic Nickel and Pressure Acid leaching (PAL) seem to be the catch phrases with several promising deposits being evaluated in Australia, New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea.
