2025 Queensland Exploration Scorecard

1.0 Scorecard Summary

The Queensland Exploration Sector 2024-25 The performance summary pulls together the key findings from the full exploration Scorecard and assigns one of four ‘traffic light’ ratings to the results. The 15-year history of the Scorecard is available online for viewing. This publication contains the last 7 years of history.

LEGEND

Good No significant impediment

Cause for concern Significant problems

Lead Indicators – Drivers of future activity and performance

2019 2020

2021 2022 2023 2024 2025

Resources prospectivity and endowment (Section 2) • Queensland is highly endowed with coal, minerals and gas resources Commodity prices (Section 3) • Gold exploration expenditure grew 3%, supported by a record 36% rise in the global gold price, while exploration in all other commodities declined. Copper exploration fell 11%, even as global prices rose 7% and demand fundamentals for electrification remain strong. • The average metallurgical coal benchmark dropped 31% to US$197 a tonne, returning to similar levels seen over the late 2010s. Thermal coal prices followed the trend with a drop of 11% to reach US$120 a tonne. Combined with the pressure of Queensland’s royalty regime, the sector is facing significant challenges. • LNG prices rose by 12%, however petroleum exploration expenditure declined 12% highlighting that regulatory settings and investment uncertainty continue to outweigh supportive pricing signals.

EXPLORATION SCORECARD 2025

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