PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Western Australia's mineral and petroleum sector reached a new record value of A$113.8-billion during 2013, breaking the previous record of A$108-billion set in 2011, Mines and Petroleum Minister Bill Marmion announced on Thursday.

He said that the state’s new record was an increase of more than A$11-billion, or 15%, compared to 2012.

“The depreciation of the Australian dollar in 2013 has been a key factor in boosting the value of Western Australia's mineral and petroleum exports, with the weaker Australian dollar helping to counter the fall in commodity prices during the year,” Marmion said.

“The value of sales was also assisted by increases in some of the volumes of commodities sold.”

Iron-ore continues to be the state's most valuable export, accounting for A$68-billion, or 76%, of the mineral sector's total sales, with continuing strong demand increasing the quantity sold in 2013 by 16% to 556-million tonnes.

The Minister said gold was the second most valuable mineral commodity, with total sales of A$8.7-billion, representing 10% of total mineral sales.

“Together, iron-ore and gold accounted for more than A$76-billion, or 86%, of all mineral sales in 2013,” Marmion said.

He noted that strong demand from China meant the iron-ore sector achieved a record 556-million tonnes in exports, an increase of 16% over the previous calendar year.

“However, despite increased output of almost 3%, the average gold price was down by 16%, which contributed to a decrease of 7% in the sales value on the previous year.”

Alumina and nickel maintained long-held positions as Western Australia's third and fourth most valuable sectors respectively with total nickel sales valued at $3.4-billion, representing a 10% decrease. In contrast the total value of alumina increased by nearly 13% to A$4.1-billion.

Valued at a record A$24.7-billion in 2013, Western Australia’s petroleum sector is the state’s second most valuable after iron-ore.

“Petroleum, which includes crude oil, condensate, liquefied natural gas (LNG), natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), represented only a slight sales value increase of one per cent compared on the previous year, which was due to Pluto LNG coming on stream and countering falls in the sales volumes and total values of crude oil and LPG,” Marmion said.

The overall value of base metals increased by 16% to A$1.7-billion in 2013 and the other category - vanadium, rare earths, manganese and industrial minerals - reached a total sales value of A$1-billion for the period.

The Minister said this was further evidence that the resources sector was the backbone of the West Australian economy and was a good indication of how strongly the industry was going.