- Record number of people employed in WA's mining industry in 2017-18
- Production was worth almost $115 billion and included record sales volumes across a number of commodities
More than 112,000 people were directly employed in Western Australia's mining industry in 2017-18, more people than at any other time in the State's history.
The employment figures were revealed in the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety's latest statistics release covering 2017-18.
Western Australia's mineral and petroleum industry reported sales of $114.9 billion, up $10 billion from the previous year.
The amount was the second highest financial year sales value on record, behind only the $123 billion achieved in 2013-14, with a number of commodities reaching record production levels including gold, iron ore, LNG and lithium.
Liquefied natural gas saw the largest increase in value, climbing from $12.7 billion to $19.1 billion, coming 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.
