[ferro-alloys.com]WA’s mining and petroleum sectors have clocked their second-highest sales revenue on record.

The WA Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety’s latest figures showed the two sectors boasted sales of $114.9 billion in the 2017-18 financial year, not far off the $123 billion record achieved in 2013-14, when iron ore prices were above $US100/t.

Last financial year’s sales represented a $10 billion jump on the previous year’s revenue and came with record production of iron ore, gold, LNG and lithium.

LNG had the biggest increase in value, climbing from $12.7 billion to $19.1 billion, off the back of a 32 per cent increase in production.

Lithium continued to see significant increases in both production and value, with sales rising 167 per cent to reach $1.6 billion from production of 2.1 million tonnes.

But iron ore was again, by far, the biggest revenue earner for the State.

Iron ore recorded sales worth $61.7 billion in 2017-18, down 3 per cent on the previous year owing to softer average iron ore prices over the year.

The fall came despite record sales volumes of the bulk commodity with almost 826 million tonnes exported.

Gold sales volumes increased for the third year in a row to reach a record 7.5 million ounces in 2017-18.

Increased volumes combined with strong gold prices to deliver a 5 per cent increase in the value of the sector, from $10.8 billion in 2016-17 to $11.4 billion in 2017-18.

A 4 per cent increase in alumina and bauxite sales resulted in a 30 per cent jump in the value of the sector to $6.6 billion in 2017-18.

WA’s nickel sector has struggled in recent years, with the value of the sector declining year-on-year since 2010-11.

However, in 2017-18, fortunes turned with the value of the sector increasing 26 per cent from $2.1 billion in 2016-17 to $2.6 billion last financial year.

The value of WA cobalt sales was up a massive 115 per cent to $514 million on higher prices and volumes.

More than 112,000 people were directly employed in WA’s mining industry in 2017-18, more than at any other time in the State’s history.

• [Editor:王可]