WESTERN Australia’s resource industry has experienced its second strongest year on record for economic performance during the 2012-13 financial year.

The latest statistics from the Department of Mines and Petroleum have valued the state’s mining, oil and gas sectors at $102 billion, marking its third consecutive year above $100bn.

Iron ore continued to lead the state in commodity values, accounting for $56.4bn of total mineral sales, of 73%. LNG also contributed greatly to this year’s statistics, increasing the value of the petroleum sector by 2.9% to $24.5bn.

Despite the total value falling by $4bn due to a decline in commodity prices and a high Australian dollar, minister for mines and petroleum Bill Marmion welcomed the statistics, hailing the sector’s ongoing strength as a precursor to employment growth.

“What this means is jobs, jobs, jobs for West Australians,” Mr Marmion said.

“I am working with DMP to drive down costs and attract ongoing resources investment into WA, for the benefit of West Australians.

“This includes the recent introduction of WA’s first fund exclusively dedicated to the rehabilitation of abandoned mine sites, the Mining Rehabilitation Fund, which has the potential to return more than $1billion in financial institution-held bonds to companies.

“Upholding environmental standards and improving efficiency, WA has also recently extended Program of Works validity from two to four years and we continue to offer two rounds of government co-funding a year to projects – supporting more than 320,000m of exploration drilling in the past five years.”

For more information about the latest data from the DMP, click here.