Western Australia continues to carry the national economy in the face of COVID-19 with the State's resources sector delivering a record $210 billion of sales and its highest-ever job numbers over the past financial year.
The remarkable results defy the economic turmoil seen around much of the world and emphasise the significance of the State's work to keep the sector running safely throughout the pandemic.
Minerals and petroleum sales in WA grew by $38 billion to $210 billion from 2019-20 to 2020-21.
Jobs supported by the sector increased from 135,000 in 2019-20 to 149,400 in 2020-21.
These results follow the State's strong economic performance throughout the pandemic, where WA's domestic economy has grown by 5.7 per cent between the December quarter 2019 and the June quarter 2021.
This is the strongest of the States and almost double the rest of the nation when WA is excluded (2.9 per cent).
Western Australia accounted for well over half (56.2 per cent) of national goods exports in 2020-21.
Iron ore sales reached a record $155 billion. Gold sales were valued at $16.6 billion, up four per cent from 2019-20, while nickel sales were valued at $3.5 billion - the industry's highest sales value in seven years.
Alumina and bauxite activities also made significant contributions to the sector's growth.
Mineral exploration hit $2.1 billion in 2020-21, an increase of 21 per cent from $1.7 billion in 2019-20, with WA's share of national mineral exploration expenditure increasing to 65 per cent.
Almost $21 billion was invested into Western Australia's mining and petroleum sector, up from $19 billion in 2019-20 - and a five-year high.
Western Australia has around $127 billion of resources projects in the development pipeline.
