Gold in them hills
Quarterly mineral exploration spend increased 5 per cent in the March quarter, to just shy of $1 billion, spurred along by high commodity prices.
Although mining investment and construction has been flat, gold exploration has surged dramatically in recent years, tripling since 2014.
This is largely of benefit to Western Australia, while Queensland has also seen a reasonable increase in exploration spend as coal and gas prices have surged.
Record profits
Gross corporate operating profits increased by 10 per cent to a record high of more than $500 billion in Q1 2022, driven by the relentless surge in mining profits since 2016.
Mining profits have nearly quadrupled over the past six years.
Of course, this alone doesn't necessarily translate to stronger wages growth, given the boost to exploration expenditure.
But nationally the wages and salaries account did show a solid increase of 1.8 per cent for the March quarter, and more than 5 per cent over the year to March 2022.
And in fact on a 'per hours worked' basis, the average hourly pay increased solidly in Q1.
Decent numbers which will no doubt keep the Reserve Bank hiking for a while yet.
