Australia is one of the world’s largest mining nations, pulling iron ore, coal, gold, lithium, bauxite, copper, nickel, uranium, and dozens of other minerals from the ground. Iron ore alone accounts for 41% of the country’s mineral export earnings, making it the single most valuable commodity. Mining spans every state and territory, but a handful of regions dominate production.
Iron Ore
Iron ore is Australia’s mining heavyweight. The country produced 861 million tonnes in 2022-23, nearly all of it from Western Australia’s Pilbara region in the state’s remote northwest. Two companies, Rio Tinto and BHP, account for roughly 90% of Western Australian iron ore output, with Fortescue Metals Group as the third major producer. Smaller operations also run in the Mid West and Kimberley regions.
Most of this iron ore is shipped to steelmakers in Asia. In 2019, iron ore exports totalled over 835 million tonnes, generating more export revenue than any other Australian mineral by a wide margin.
Coal and Natural Gas
Black coal is Australia’s second most valuable mineral export, split between two types: metallurgical coal (used to make steel) and thermal coal (burned for electricity). Combined, they represented 27.4% of mineral export earnings in 2019, with metallurgical coal contributing the larger share. Queensland and New South Wales are the primary coal-producing states, and about 88% of black coal production is exported.
Natural gas is a major part of the energy picture as well. Australia exports around 74% of its domestic gas production, mostly as liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipped from massive processing facilities in Western Australia and Queensland. LNG exports grew an average of 13% per year over the past decade before levelling off recently due to geopolitical pressures.
Gold
Australia is the world’s second-largest gold producer behind China, mining 315 tonnes in 2018, or about 10% of global output. Western Australia dominates, responsible for 67% of the national total. New South Wales sits in a distant second place at 12%, followed by Queensland at 6%.
Gold production has climbed steadily over the past decade. Western Australia’s output alone rose from 152 tonnes in 2009 to 211 tonnes in 2018, driven by both new discoveries and expansions at existing mines. Victoria, once the centre of Australia’s 19th-century gold rush, still produces modest quantities, reaching 13 tonnes in 2018. Gold accounted for 10% of Australia’s mineral export earnings in 2019, with 362 tonnes of refined gold shipped overseas.
Lithium
Australia is the world’s top lithium producer by extraction volume, accounting for 36% of global lithium output in 2024. The mineral is essential for rechargeable batteries used in electric vehicles and energy storage systems. Most Australian lithium comes from hard-rock spodumene mines in Western Australia’s Greenbushes and Pilgangoora deposits, rather than the brine evaporation method used in South America.
Investment in lithium exploration has surged. Australian exploration spending jumped from US$1.4 million in 2015 to US$298 million in 2024, representing 27% of global lithium exploration expenditure. Competition from North America, Africa, and China is growing, but Australia is expected to remain a leading supplier for the foreseeable future.
Bauxite, Alumina, and Copper
Bauxite, the ore used to produce aluminium, is mined in large quantities across northern Australia, particularly in Queensland and Western Australia. Australia exports both raw bauxite and the processed intermediate product, alumina, as well as finished aluminium ingots. Together, these three stages of the aluminium supply chain accounted for 6% of mineral export earnings in 2019, with over 39 million tonnes of bauxite and nearly 18 million tonnes of alumina shipped that year.
Copper mining contributes 4.3% of mineral exports. South Australia’s Olympic Dam is one of the world’s largest copper-gold-uranium deposits, while significant copper operations also run in New South Wales and Queensland. Australia exports copper both as raw ore concentrates and as refined metal.
Uranium
Australia ranked as the world’s fourth-largest uranium producer in 2023, contributing 9% of global output with 4,686 tonnes of uranium produced. All active mines are in South Australia: Olympic Dam, Four Mile, and the Honeymoon mine, which restarted operations in late 2023 after sitting idle for a decade. Once extracted, uranium is processed into uranium oxide concentrate and exported in that form, as Australia does not operate nuclear power plants domestically.
Nickel, Zinc, and Other Metals
Nickel and zinc round out the major base metals mined across the country. Nickel accounted for 1.8% and zinc for 1.6% of mineral exports in 2019. Western Australia hosts most nickel operations, while zinc is mined in several states including Queensland and New South Wales.
Beyond these headline commodities, Australia produces manganese (primarily from the Northern Territory’s Groote Eylandt), titanium mineral sands along the southern and western coastlines, and rare-earth elements from deposits in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
Critical Minerals on the Horizon
The Australian government maintains an official Critical Minerals List of 31 minerals considered essential to modern technology, national security, and clean energy supply chains. The list includes cobalt, rare-earth elements, graphite, vanadium, tungsten, scandium, tantalum, and several others alongside lithium and nickel.
Many of these minerals are already mined in small quantities, but the government is actively encouraging exploration and development to expand production. Australia’s geological potential for these resources is significant, and growing global demand for batteries, semiconductors, and defence technologies is driving investment into deposits that were previously uneconomical. Cobalt, for instance, is produced as a byproduct at several nickel and copper mines, while rare-earth processing facilities are scaling up to reduce global dependence on a small number of suppliers.