GOLD — PROBABLE AND PROVEN RESERVES
237. Hon ROBIN SCOTT to the minister representing the
Treasurer:
(1) Is the Treasurer aware of a spreadsheet entitled
MINEDEX, which is produced by the Department of Mines, Industry
Regulation and Safety, showing resource estimates for Western Australian
commodities including gold?
(2) Will the Treasurer confirm that the total of Western
Australia's probable and proven reserves of gold are listed by MINEDEX
as 1 240 398 kilograms in 2010, 921 918 kilograms in 2011, 943 235 kilograms in
2012, 730 188 kilograms in 2013, 634 408 kilograms in 2014, 632 531 kilograms
in 2015 and 627 405 kilograms in 2016?
(3) In light
of the decline of 49.4 per cent from 2010 to 2016 in the total of Western Australia's
probable and proven gold reserves, what action, if any, will the Treasurer take
to reverse this decline?
Hon STEPHEN DAWSON
replied:
I thank the honourable member for some notice of the
question.
(1) Yes.
(2) The
numbers read out by the member are from a table within a spreadsheet and are
out of context. The spreadsheet indicates, in an explanatory note, that another
portion of the spreadsheet provides more accurate figures of the WA gold
reserves over time.
(3) Section 2
of the MINEDEX report on total inventory within current reserves shows that WA's
gold reserves are significantly higher and have increased from totalling 1 395
tonnes of gold in 2015 to totalling 1 741 tonnes in late 2017 when the report
was generated from MINEDEX. The state's reserves of gold have increased
further since then and are currently estimated at totalling 1 890 tonnes of
gold.
The Western Australian
government provides assistance for exploration in WA's mineral
resources through access to the world-leading Geoscience Australia data through
Geological Survey Western Australia, as well as the
exploration incentive scheme. The goldmining industry does not require
additional state government support, given it is paying around half of the
benchmark rate of return to the people of Western Australia for the finite
commodity it mines, whilst gold prices remain at historical highs.