Backed by strong support from the investment market and surging global prices in some cases, investment in exploration for mining and petroleum in Australia is mostly looking positive. New data from the Australian Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR) provides interesting reading with some commodities bouncing back strongly while others are languishing.
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Exploration spending is a critical element in the growth and continued strength of the Australian resource sector, with many of the nation’s biggest mines and most valuable oil and gas projects tracing back to someone with a pick in their hand or a seismic map on their laptop.
With the Middle East crisis having an impact on a range of commodity prices, exploration expenditure is following market trends.
As would be expected, gold has attracted significant exploration investment. According to the latest DISR “Resources and Energy Quarterly,” gold exploration Down Under is rising sharply following two straight years of falls, with recent investment a response to the sharp rise in the price in recent years.
In YoY terms, expenditure grew for gold (up 53%), silver, lead, and zinc (+30%), and other deposits (+12%), but fell for copper, cobalt, coal and iron ore.
DISR believes record prices for gold and copper suggest strong exploration spending for those two metals will continue to be at higher levels than in recent years.
For proponents of gold-antimony and copper-gold projects under development, the gold surge is offering benefits through rising equity valuations (supportive of capital raising) and enhanced financial viability for new projects.
For larger and existing producers, the surge in gold prices is lifting operational flexibility (such as processing lower-grade feedstock), funding expansion activities or brownfield exploration.
Iron ore is also benefiting from growing demand, with exploration strong as producers replace depleting reserves. A total of $186M was spent on iron ore exploration in the March quarter, up 4.7% on the March quarter CY25.
“High exploration spending is likely to persist over the outlook period, as Australian producers look for deposits with suitable volumes and ore grades to replace depleting mines. This sustaining exploration expenditure on iron ore is important to find higher-grade iron ore and maintain Australia’s global market position and export competitiveness,” the DISR report noted in its FY27 report.
Exploration for coal is also tipped to rise, with domestic output benefiting from the government’s designation of metallurgical coal as a critical mineral. The move is expected to streamline regulatory approvals, accelerate exploration, and ultimately, increase output.
Elsewhere, zinc, lead and silver exploration expenditure increased by 30% year-on-year in Q1 2026. The growth in exploration spending for those metals was mainly driven by higher investment in Western Australia, which increased from about $11 million in 2024 to more than $17 million in CY25.
Despite global lithium exploration expenditure halving to US$595M in CY25, Canada and Australia still led global exploration efforts, accounting for about 52% of the global exploration spend for the critical metal in CY25.
Australia’s longer-term trend in lithium expenditure registered a rise from US$1.4M in CY15 to US$128M in CY25, reflecting the considerable growth in the last decade.
On the downside, nickel and cobalt exploration expenditure in Oz fell to around $163M in CY25, a 28% year-on-year decline and a 36% fall since CY23.
On the energy side, onshore petroleum exploration rose by $21M, to $269M in the March quarter CY26. However, offshore exploration did fall by more than 40% to $169M in the quarter. This reversed a sharp rise in the December quarter and brought offshore spending back to around its two-year average.
The rising prices for uranium fuelled higher exploration expenditure.
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