In a worrying trend, mineral exploration expenditure in Queensland fell 10.9 per cent (or -$10.7m) in the September quarter 2014, according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Nationally expenditure in exploration fell 3.6 per cent (or -$16.5m) to $446.9m. The current quarter estimate is almost 25 per cent lower than the September quarter 2013 estimate.
The seasonally adjusted estimate for mineral exploration expenditure fell 7.8 per cent (or -$37.0m) to $439.8m in the September quarter 2014. The largest contributor to the fall this quarter was Western Australia (down 7.7 per cent or -$21.7m).
Exploration on areas of new deposits fell 10.4 per cent (or -$15.0m) and expenditure on areas of existing deposits fell 12.1 per cent (or -$45.0m).
In original terms, the largest fall by minerals sought came from expenditure on iron ore exploration (down 24.4 per cent or -$46.1m). The next largest fall came from expenditure on gold exploration (down 13.4 per cent or -$13.9m).
Click here to read the full ABS report.
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