New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals releases Mining Industry Statistics for 2023

Annual minerals industry statistics

These figures include a range of data on minerals production, revenue from royalties, and industry expenditure on prospecting and exploration.

This dataset is the only nationwide compilation of data on minerals, and comprises:

• Information reported to MBIE (under statute) in relation to permits held under the Crown Minerals Act 1991 (this dataset can be considered complete), and
• Information voluntarily provided to MBIE via a survey in relation to quarries producing industrial rocks and minerals. Most of these quarries do not require a Crown minerals permit as the minerals are privately owned (this dataset is not complete).

This year the response rate for the Annual Return of Industrial Rocks and Industrial Minerals Output (the ‘quarry survey’) that partially underpins the data was 63%. This represents an improvement over the previous two years (2021 = 54%; 2022 = 38%). Thank you to all those who responded to the survey.

Data released from the survey is anonymised so that no individual producer’s data can be identified.

Key findings for this year:

• Gold production totalled 220,000 ounces, a 2.5% increase on the previous year.
• Total Government revenue from all royalties and Energy Resource Levies was up 2.6% on 2022-23 to $242 million.
• Total royalties from gold was $9.23 million, up 19.6% on 2022-23, largely reflective of the strong gold price.
• Total reported aggregate and industrial minerals production was up 17.9% on 2022, with the biggest increases in the production of rock, sand and gravel mined for roading. 
• Coal production fell 1.4% from 2022.
• Coal royalties dropped more significantly (from $7.5 million to $3.7 million), largely driven by a lower coking coal price which fluctuated between US$200 and US$400 a tonne throughout 2023, down from a peak of US$600 a tonne in early 2022.
• Minerals prospecting and exploration expenditure continues to be strong.

This data has a range of uses, including informing and providing assessment and scrutiny of Government policy proposals.

For further queries, contact MBIE’s media team at media@mbie.govt.nz.