This map shows the locations and status of Australian operating mines, mines under development, mines on care and maintenance and mineral deposits associated with a critical mineral resource as at December 2024. Operating mines include projects that have reported a critical mineral resource, but do not necessarily produce critical minerals. Developing mines are deposits where the project has a positive feasibility study, development has commenced or all approvals have been received. Mines under care and maintenance and mineral deposits are those projects with a known critical mineral resource estimate that may produce critical minerals in the future.
For the purposes of this map, critical minerals are defined as minerals and elements that are vital for modern technology and whose supply may be at risk of disruption. As at December 2024, the Australian critical minerals list comprised antimony, arsenic, beryllium, bismuth, chromium, cobalt, fluorine, gallium, germanium, graphite, hafnium, high purity alumina, indium, lithium, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, niobium, platinum group elements, rare earth elements, rhenium, selenium, silicon (high purity silica/quartz), scandium, tantalum, tellurium, titanium, tungsten, vanadium and zirconium. These commodities are coloured by mineral groupings on the map.