Western Australia is reported to have more than $8 trillion in known mineral and energy resources, according to the Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA’s (CMEWA) Unearthing Potential report.
This report outlines WA’s potential to generate more than a trillion in royalties and taxes, support hundreds of thousands of jobs, and position the state as an “indispensable link” in global supply chains.
Management consulting company EY-Parthenon’s analysis of 27 individual commodities states that developing 80% of WA’s currently identified resources base may support $8.1 trillion in saleable product value, $476 billion in royalty revenue, and $855 billion in Commonwealth company tax revenue.
Along with these figures, development of the state’s current resources base could support up to 864,000 construction jobs during project development. This includes 158,000 onsite operational jobs each year, along with $1.1 trillion in total wages.
CMEWA CEO Aaron Morey says the report highlights the importance of the resources sector, which has “long powered Australian prosperity”.
“The Western Australian story is inseparable from its mining story — and we remain closer to the first chapter of that story than the last,” Morey explains.
“That is exciting for every Australian. With the right policy settings, we can unlock decades of jobs, decades of royalties, decades of taxes, and decades of the world knocking on Western Australia’s door for the minerals and energy every modern economy needs.
“The huge scale of work required to bring these resources to market means generations of West Australians will have access to rewarding careers in mining and energy.
“What makes these figures even more remarkable is that they only encompass a portion of the mineral and energy reserves we already know about.”
Golden legacy
WA’s mining history is nothing short of impressive. With discoveries led by iron ore, gold, and natural gas, the state’s mining industry spans back to 1846.
Iron ore can be found in all states and territories in Australia. However, WA stands out for its resources, accounting for almost 90% of identified iron ore resources, according to Geoscience Australia.
WA’s iron ore discoveries generate $122 billion in sales each year, including a near-record output of 864 million tonnes (Mt) in the 2024–25 financial year.
Coming in second, with a decent margin, is gold. WA’s gold accounts for around $29 billion in sales and 6.7 million ounces (Moz) produced in the same period. Notably, the state hosts about 60% of the country’s gold resources.
One of the country’s largest producing gold mines is Newmont’s (ASX:NEM) Boddington gold and copper operation in the Peel region of WA.
Boddington produced around 160,000 ounces of gold and 5,000 tonnes of copper each year from open pit mining. The mine has been in operation since 2009 and hosts an estimated 16-year reserve life, with further upside potential from resource development and exploration.
The project has 10.2Moz of gold and 500,000 tonnes of copper in reserves, along with 4.4Moz of gold and 300,000 tonnes of copper in resources.
Another major gold-copper operation in the state is the Telfer mine in Paterson province, operated by Greatland Resources (ASX:GGP).
The Telfer mine was previously owned by Newmont, before Greatland acquired the asset in December 2024.
Telfer offers both open-pit and underground mining operations, with a large processing facility that comprises two 10-million-tonne-per-annum (Mtpa) capacity trains, totalling 20Mtpa in nominal capacity.
Greatland’s Telfer has a combined resource estimate of 417Mt @ 0.59 grams per tonne gold and 0.09% copper for 7.9Moz gold and 369,000 tonnes copper.
New beginnings
These discoveries aren’t the end for WA’s potential. CMEWA’s identification of $8.1 trillion in potential saleable product value is only going to further drive exploration in the state.
Just 10km northwest of the Telfer Mine, Hamelin Gold (ASX:HMG) is unpacking the Day Dawn Project.
Day Dawn is by no means a new exploration asset. Activities in the project date back to the 1980s passed down across multiple companies making different ‘high-grade’ gold discoveries.
Hamelin has based its exploration model for the project on Telfer, stating that the model is similar and “strongly influenced” by Telfer’s geological setting.
Gold mineralisation at Telfer is concentrated within conformable and discordant reef style lodes and broader zones of stockwork mineralisation — and Day Dawn is interpreted to be similar.
While exploration runs deep at Day Dawn, Hamelin is also focused on a new gold lode.
In February 2026, Hamelin identified the new Aurora gold lode after reviewing historical drilling datasets.
The ‘high-grade’ lode hosts former drill results of 4m @ 4.3 grams per tonne gold (Au), 7m @ 17.1g/t Au from 16m, 3m @ 51.1g/t Au from 35m, and 2.5m @ 7.6g/t Au from 127.1m to the end of the hole, as reported by Mining.com.au earlier this year.
Speaking to this news service, Managing Director Peter Bewick says he sees that the real opportunity in mineral exploration is “looking in areas where people haven’t looked before”.
“A lot of people would say, well, you know, Western Australia is mature in its exploration, but it’s anything but that,” Bewick tells Mining.com.au.
“There are still huge chunks. The rocks that we’re looking at just don’t come to the surface.
“There are parts of Australia that are very mature and have been explored quite effectively, and Day Dawn’s a little bit of an anomaly in that someone hadn’t managed to get hold of the ground and see what we saw.
“That’s because of the ground being held a lot by prospectors and junior miners, and it’s never really had a coherent or focused effort there.
“Looking under cover, I think that’s where the state and the country still has a significant opportunity for mineral discoveries where the rocks don’t come to surface.”
Hamelin began drilling at the project in June this year and has since completed phase two of drilling activities.
The company expanded the program’s initially planned 3,000m to 4,000m across 35 holes to target near-surface extensions to the Aurora and Altus gold lodes and down-plunge extensions of the Aurora lodes.
More than 4,000 samples have been submitted for analysis from this drilling campaign. Assay results are expected to be returned in October 2026.
Final frontiers
In comparison to many WA mining regions, the West Arunta can be described as a ‘final frontier’ for exploration.
Located in the east-central region of WA and nearing the Northern Territory border, West Arunta is under a microscope for the state government organisation, the Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia (MRIWA).
As reported, the MRIWA project is led by the University of Western Australia, aimed at strengthening understanding of the region’s emplacement of carbonatite magma complexes, along with associated development and remobilisation of niobium-rare earth element (REE) mineral systems.
Encounter Resources (ASX:ENR) is one company operating in the region focused on advancing its Aileron Niobium-REE Project, painting the West Arunta to be rich in niobium.
Hamelin Managing Director Peter Bewick says that when looking at discoveries emerging in previously underexplored regions — such as Encounter’s Aileron Project — and comparing to brownfields discoveries, “there’ll be discoveries across that whole spectrum”.
“Increasing gold and copper prices mean that the brownfields discoveries will continue to deliver and continue to make a big impression,” Bewick notes.
“I also believe if the money continues to go into greenfields exploration, there will still be potentially company-changing discoveries like what Encounter have done out in the West Arunta and new districts found.
“I think Australia’s got a huge opportunity for more discoveries if we can continue to fund exploration, which is not easy.”
The West Arunta isn’t only home to niobium-REE discoveries, though. Speaking to Mining.com.au previously, Encounter Executive Chairman Will Robinson says that while niobium deposits have been uncovered fast in West Arunta, “it is highly likely that there will be other commodities discovered in this region”.
Also in the Aileron province of West Arunta, CGN Resources (ASX:CGR) is exploring the Webb Project for iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) and nickel sulphide mineralisation.
CGN Resources described this section of the West Arunta Orogen to be essentially unexplored for copper or nickel and “highly prospective”.
Reinterpreting geophysics results and reviewing geochemistry and geology databases, CGN Resources believes there to be multiple IOCG targets at Webb.
The review also identified potential for magmatic nickel and rare earth elements related to potential carbonatite intrusives.
Everything old is new again
Not every ground-breaking discovery can be brand-new. Especially for a state that has undergone as much mineral exploration as WA — at one point, the well will dry up.
But this isn’t something that should scare explorers.
Hamelin Gold’s Aurora lode discovery is in close proximity to a major gold operation — on land that has been passed down through many generations of exploration.
Managing Director Bewick says not every future discovery can be brand-new, never drilled before, or never looked at before.
“They’ll be things that are under the shadow of the headframe — like right next to existing mines — and they will be out in the middle of the desert in areas where no one’s looked before,” Bewick says.
“There’ll be a spectrum across all of those, and I think there’s still opportunity at every one of those scales.”
In a state as large as WA — spanning 2.53 million km2 and being the second-largest sub-national subdivision in the entire world — and given its rich mineral endowment, it’s unlikely that the state will run out of resources.
WA remains one of the world’s richest and most productive mining regions and, clearly, with $8.1 trillion in potential.
Write to Maddison Elliott at Mining.com.au
Main Image: CMEWA
