Exploration in Australia had the highest expenditures in the September quarter 2025 since Q4 2023, with a 45% growth in gold exploration over the past 12 months alone.
Newly released mineral exploration and expenditure data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows exploration for gold across Australia rose 7.2% to $431.5 million over the June quarter – and significantly over Q3 2024 ($297.5 million), led by greater activity in New South Wales and South Australia.
Nationally, mineral exploration expenditure (on an original basis) reached $1.068 billion for Q3 2025, an increase of 5.7% on the June quarter, and 5.% higher than the previous corresponding period.
Besides the surge in gold exploration activity, AMEC Chief Executive Warren Pearce notes a renewed focus on uranium exploration spend nationally was also observed during the quarter, rising 20.3% and was particularly strong in the Northern Territory (up 173%).
Pearce says gold has proven itself to be an outstanding and resilient performer in maintaining explorer interest, buoyed obviously by recent gold price highs and the continuing uncertainties seen in global markets.
“As an industry it is critical we continue to build a pipeline of discoveries and this requires a dollar commitment to greenfields exploration and a recognition by governments of the importance of new projects to ensure the future economic prosperity of the nation remains secure and achievable,” Pearce adds.
During Q3 2025, total metres drilled (greenfields and brownfields) was 2,835.5m, down 1.5% compared to 2,877.9m during Q2, but 8.5% above the previous September quarter in 2024 (2,613.4m).
Total greenfields exploration expenditure across all Australian jurisdictions for Q3 was $270.5 million, a 5.7% increase on the June quarter but 2.1% lower than Q3 2024.
Quarterly greenfields drilling activity was higher totalling 644.1m for the quarter but down in the September quarter 2024.
Western Australia dominated exploration activity on new discoveries on a dollar spend basis, however Queensland and the Northern Territory saw the biggest uplift in overall greenfields expenditures quarter on quarter at 26.9% and 36.3% respectively.
Pearce says the latest results reveal that exploration spending on existing projects is now three times that of greenfields or new discoveries.
Office of the Chief Economist update
The ABS data comes as both Australia’s Office of the Chief Economist and the World Bank in October 2025 released new forecasts with increases for most of the major metals.
The two institutions regularly provide updated forecasts for metals prices. In October, Australia’s Office of the Chief Economist (AOCE) and the World Bank (WB), both released new estimates in October 2025.
For both there were major upgrades to their gold forecasts for 2025, although the Canadian Mining Report notes the AOCE expects it to flatten over the next two years, and the WB estimates a rise in 2026 and decline in 2027.
“They have similar forecasts for a gradual rise in copper and aluminum prices, a pickup in nickel and decline in iron ore, with zinc roughly flat.,” Canadian Mining Report states.
“The AOCE’s gold forecasts have seen a major upgrade from June 2025, especially for 2027E, while WB has only released 2027 forecasts in the October 2025 report.
“While the AOCE’s copper forecasts have been upgraded marginally for 2025E to 2027E, the WB has increased its estimates substantially, indicating a significant change in outlook.
“The rise for both was likely partly driven by a decline in expected supply after the shutdown of the Grasberg in Indonesia, the second largest global copper producer. However, the WB’s new estimates also seem to incorporate a major change in demand expectations compared to earlier this year.”
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Images: AHN, AMEC & Canadian Mining Report
