Australia’s mineral exploration sector has started 2026 strongly, with new Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data showing expenditure increased 16.3 per cent year-on-year to $949.3 million in the March quarter.
The increase of $133.1 million was driven by significant investment in gold and silver exploration, with expenditure on gold rising 53.4 per cent to $157 million and silver increasing 29.9 per cent to $4.4 million compared to the March 2025 quarter.
Drilling activity also strengthened, with metres drilled increasing 27.6 per cent year-on-year. The result was largely driven by brownfields drilling, which rose 34.4 per cent as producers focused on drilling out already discovered resources. Greenfields drilling increased by a more modest 4.7 per cent.
Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (AMEC) chief executive officer Warren Pearce said these results show the enthusiasm and momentum for mineral exploration.
“With strong commodity prices and global appetite for our resources, it is great to see companies getting on ground to drill in numbers,” he said.
Similar to the last quarter’s figures, gold exploration continued to perform strongly across the country, supported by a gold price that remains around US$4500 per ounce.
Across the states, Victoria recorded the largest year-on-year increase in exploration expenditure at 29.8 per cent, followed by New South Wales (25.7 per cent), Western Australia (25.3 per cent), Tasmania (22 per cent) and the Northern Territory (2.4 per cent).
Queensland and South Australia both recorded year-on-year declines of 19.8 per cent and 17 per cent respectively.
“We always see a decline early in the calendar year due to wet seasons and summer holidays,” Pearce said. “Queensland and South Australia were particularly affected by flooding during this period.”