The Australian Bureau of Statistics has traced a 13.7% decline in industry value added for the mining industry over the 2012-13 year to $A114.4 billion.
This loss encompasses the value of capitalised wages, salaries and purchases.
The trend was even more pronounced in the metal ore mining sector, where value added fell by 16.4% over the year to $58.9 billion.
Exploration and mining support services were perhaps the most dramatically impacted sector of the industry, with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation down 1860% compared to the previous year.
Exploration and services EBITDA fell from an almost break-even position of negative $28 million in 2011-12 to a loss of $540 million in 2012-13.
The value of the sector recorded a 5.4% fall over the year to $6.4 billion, with total capital expenditure totalling $4 billion.
This update follows closely on the release of ABS figures marking an 8.3% drop in exploration spending over the March quarter to $487.7 million.
Before-tax profits from mining operations were down 88.3% to $1.7 billion for coal and down 41.4% to $29.7 billion for metals.
Sales and service income fell 7.5% for all mining activity over 2012-13 to $201.1 billion, with coal mining income the hardest hit, down 16.9% to $48.5 billion.
Iron ore mining income lost 9% to $62.1 billion and gold ore mining income fell 5.8% to $12.6 billion.
Across metallic, non-metallic, quarrying and oil and gas extraction, Western Australia accounted for 56.8% of industry income, followed by Queensland at 19.7%.
WA and Queensland also led the nation in employment numbers as the national resources industry payroll ticked 1.9% lower to 189,692 people.
Over the year, iron ore mining demonstrated the highest hiring rate with a 10.6% increase in headcount, while the gold mining sector reduced employment by 4.1%.
Total wages and salaries in the metal ore mining space were up 19.8% at $9.8 billion.
In exploration and services, wages and salaries increased 2% to $4.9 billion.
The ABS’s recent reports on the diving exploration industry have prompted calls for concern from industry representatives, including the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies.
“There has been a steady decrease in recent years, which is causing extreme concern and hardship for those in the sector,” AMEC chief executive Simon Bennison said.
“This decrease in greenfields exploration expenditure and metres drilled is extremely concerning as it takes, on average, seven years to convert a discovery into an operating mine, according to research undertaken by the University of Western Australia.
“These figures should be a wake-up call for all levels of government, highlighting the need for the coalition’s proposed exploration development incentive (EDI) and repeal of the carbon and mining taxes.”
Last week, Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane released a series of statements stressing the importance of exploration funding and deregulation as well as a reaffirming the government’s plan to scrap the mining and carbon taxes.
The EDI is expected to benefit from $100 million in federal monies for small and mid-sized mining and exploration companies.
