Australia is among the top six countries in the world for bauxite, black coal, copper, gold, iron ore, and industrial diamonds. It also possesses the greatest economically proven reserves of mineral sands, brown coal, uranium, nickel, zinc, and lead.
Cement, base metal smelting and refining, the conversion of bauxite into alumina and aluminum, and the transformation of iron ore into iron and steel are some of the major processing sectors.
With the natural resources in Australia, the Australian minerals sector significantly contributes to the country’s GDP, investment, high-paying jobs, exports, and tax revenues.
Its natural resources, which contribute to its GDP of roughly $1.38 trillion and its ranking as the 14th largest economy in the world, may not be as widely known.
Let’s start by emphasizing that Australia’s economy does not rely heavily on natural resources to sustain itself. The main engine of the nation’s economy is the service industry.
This covers topics like financial, commercial, and transportation services. About 75% of Australia’s workforce is employed in the service industry, which also accounts for 70% of the country’s GDP.
The main driver of the region’s burgeoning tourism industry is its natural riches. Because Australia’s government makes excellent use of all its natural resources, the nation now boasts the strongest economy in the world.
However, it is also true that Australia’s economy depends heavily on natural resources.
Table of Contents
Top 11 Natural Resources in Australia
Numerous minerals, oil, gas, and timber are just a few of Australia’s abundant natural resources.
1. Gold
One of Australia’s most important natural resources is the production of gold. The nation produces gold at a second-place global level behind Chile. As a result, Australia is truly a golden nation.
We are well aware that the outer layer of the earth contains only 3 ppb of gold, one of the rarest elements on the planet. Gold is also among the most expensive of the world’s natural resources due to its rarity and unique qualities.
Gold is one of the few yellow-colored metals, which are extremely rare. It is an intriguing substance because it is ductile, aesthetically pleasing, malleable, and a good conductor as well. It has a hefty constitution and weighs 15 times as much as water.
It is anticipated that the concentration of gold in Australian gold mines occurred in the eastern states as early as hundreds of millions of years ago, while in Western Australia, this concentration occurred about thousands of millions of years ago.
These rocks with the gold veins are disintegrating now that they are exposed to the earth’s surface after millions of years of concentration.
Alluvial gold deposits are created as a result of erosion, which causes the gold that is found in these rocks to be washed into creeks. Gold increasingly concentrates and creates secondary gold deposits as a result of water action.
2. Coal
Coal is another abundant natural resource in Australia. Australia’s coal reserves could total 24 billion tons, according to estimates. Anthracite, sometimes known as black coal, makes up one-fourth of this coal, or roughly 7 billion tons.
These black coal reserves are found in the Sydney Basin of Queensland and New South Wales, where they were deposited in Permian sediments. Victoria is where the brown coal deposits are. Electricity is produced using this kind of coal.
Australia has vast natural coal reserves, thus the nation uses its coal for internal use and exports the extra coal that is generated.
3. Natural Gas
Natural gas is widely produced in Australia. Natural gas fields can be found throughout the nation. The majority of Australia’s natural gas is used for household purposes. Every state in the union reportedly has a commercial natural gas field.
Pipelines connect the fields to the state’s largest cities. In Australia, natural gas production began in 1969 and increased by more than 14 times in the first three years.
Australia’s natural gas reserves are thought to be trillions of tons large. All over the continent, sedimentary strata contain the natural gas that has been deposited there.
4. Petroleum Reserves
Petroleum reserves are consistently listed among Australia’s various natural resources. Petroleum reserves are one of Australia’s most valuable natural resources, and they are located in Western Australia.
Crude oil, natural gas, and condensate are among the diversity of natural petroleum reserves. There are several refineries in the nation that create petroleum end products for domestic consumption, but the majority of these goods are exported to overseas markets, creating enormous foreign exchange reserves in the process.
Australia’s natural gas reserves are thought to cover a surface area of 3921 billion cubic meters. As of 2016, Australia had 1,193,000,000 barrels of proven oil reserves, placing it 38th in the world’s oil reserves, which totaled 1,650,585,140,000 barrels.
A proven resource equivalent to 2.9 times Australia’s yearly consumption exists.
About 30% of these deposits have been commercially proven. The nation is endowed with more than 58 billion barrels of oil shale deposits, according to estimates.
Australia is renowned for producing LNG, or liquefied natural gas, in addition to its oil shale and natural gas deposits. According to statistics, Australia supplied 6% of the liquefied natural gas traded globally in 2004.
5. Minerals
Australia has large mineral reserves, and their presence has a tremendously positive effect on the nation’s economy. The varied types of minerals found in Australia are also suggested by human history and settlement patterns.
The alluvial gold deposits in Australia now have a significant impact on the country’s demographic structure. Following World War II, several minerals, including gold, bauxite, manganese, iron, opals, sapphire, and other precious stones, were discovered in Australia.
6. Uranium
Australia is home to uranium ore as well. The nuclear power sector uses uranium ore in its refined form as fuel. Western Queensland contains uranium ore resources close to Mount Isa and Cloncurry.
These deposits could total more than 2.7 billion tons, according to estimates. Natural uranium ore reserves can also be found in Arnhem, a remote region of northern Australia.
7. Land Features
How can we avoid discussing the country’s geographical features when discussing Australia’s wonderful natural resources? Australia is one of the most alluring tourist destinations in the world because of its natural beauty.
More than 3% of Australia’s GDP is generated by the tourist industry. And the reason that more than half of the workers of the nation are employed in this area is the region’s booming tourism industry.
The Great Barrier Reef, MacKenzie Falls, Shark Bay, Uluru, The Pinnacles, The Twelve Apostles, Whitsundays Island, Ningaloo Reef, and many other attractions draw tourists to the nation.
The Great Barrier Reef, the only natural feature on earth that can be viewed from space, is the most significant natural feature in Australia. The reef system is thought to be up to 25 million years old and covers an area of more than 2300 kilometers.
There are thousands of distinct species of tropical fish and more than a thousand different varieties of coral on the Great Barrier Reef. However, a significant number of tourists from throughout the world are polluting this system.
Because it is regarded as a cultural property, Uluru, another well-known tourist site in Australia, is very carefully protected. For Australia’s indigenous people, it is a spiritual and holy area.
Uluru, sometimes referred to as Ayers Rock, has a circumference of almost 6 miles and a height of 1,142 feet. The time of day you visit this rock will determine what colors it has.
8. Iron Ore
Australia’s vast reserves of iron ore are found in Western Australia. Hammersley Range also has iron ore reserves in addition to Western Australia. These enormous magnetite reserves, which are transported to Japan and other nations, total billions of tons.
Additionally, Australia is currently mining iron ore from defunct mines situated in Southern Western Australia’s Koolyanobbing Range and South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula.
9. Nickel
The Nickel reserves in Australia were originally found in the Kambalda area of South Western Australia, close to Kalgoorlie, in 1964. Later, it was discovered that Western Australia possesses substantial nickel reserves.
Other nickel riches have been discovered close to Western Australia’s former gold mines. In Western Australia, a tiny amount of platinum and palladium are also being mined from these nickel sources.
10. Zinc
Australia has its zinc reserves. Mount Isa and Mount Morgan in Queensland are two significant locations with zinc resources.
Large zinc and lead mines are also located in Australia’s Northern Territory. Bauxite reserves can also be discovered in Australia.
11. Timber
Finally, we shall include wood from Australia’s numerous forests as another natural resource that supports the economy of the country. Around 1.95 million hectares of the country’s land are used for commercial plantations, according to the Australian Department of Agriculture, which estimates that around 17% of the nation’s territory is covered in forest.
The country’s native woodlands are dominated by eucalyptus and acacia trees. The Monterey pine-based exotic softwood that makes up about half of the country’s commercial forests is followed by eucalyptus trees for the remainder.
(Monterey pine is a common building material used to manufacture veneer, plywood, paper, and boxes. Eucalyptus, on the other hand, is frequently utilized in plywood, cabinets, and flooring products.
Australia is a huge nation that spans millions of square miles—2,969,907 square miles, to be precise. Some claim that despite all of its natural resources and other economic advantages, it already entered a new post-growth era before the coronavirus outbreak.
Incredibly, Australia has gone 28 years without a recession, but economic expansion never lasts forever. Due to the epidemic, the entire world is heading into a recession or perhaps a depression, It is unclear how Australia will perform in the upcoming years.
List of all Natural Resources in Australia
Below is the list of all the natural resources in Australia
- Aluminum
- Gold
- Copper
- Iron
- Lithium
- Magnesium
- Manganese
- Molybdenum
- Niobium
- Nickel
- Platinum
- Tin
- Tantalum
- Uranium
- Tungsten
- Zinc
- Antimony
- Black Coal
- Brown coal
- Cobalt
- Diamond
- Lead
- Mineral sands
- Neodymium
- Potassium
- Rare earth
- Silver
- Thorium
- Vanadium
- Phosphate
- Potash
- Rutile
- IImenite
- Garnet
- Monazite
- Zircon
- Opal
- Emerald
- Garnet
- Topaz
- Jade
- Sapphire/Ruby
- Zircon
- Timber
- Natural Gas
- Petroleum Reserves
Conclusion
Natural resources are a major driver of the Australian economy. Natural resources have not only boosted the mining sector but also the tourism sector. Most of the significant minerals in the world have their native habitat in Australia.
Every kind of mineral can be found in Australia, including gold, uranium, nickel, petroleum, and natural gas. In addition, the nation is the world’s top exporter of lead, zinc, alumina, iron, and black coal.
Australia is the second-largest exporter of uranium in the entire globe. Australia’s natural riches are further enhanced by its scenic landscapes and beaches.
11 Natural Resources in Australia – FAQs
Where are most of Australia's natural resources?
The most economically significant mineral reserves are found in Western Australia (iron ore, nickel, bauxite, diamonds, gold, and offshore natural gas).
Is Australia rich in oil?
Yes. As of 2016, Australia had 1,193,000,000 barrels of proven oil reserves, placing it 38th in the world's oil reserves, which totaled 1,650,585,140,000 barrels. A proven resource equivalent to 2.9 times Australia's yearly consumption exists.
What are the top 5 natural resources in Australia?
The top 5 natural resources in Australia include gold, coal, natural gas, petroleum reserves, and minerals.
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A passion-driven environmentalist by heart. Lead content writer at EnvironmentGo.
I strive to educate the public about the environment and its problems.
It has always been about nature, we ought to protect not destroy.