Mining or production tenements and exploration tenements

How to interpret this data

The following information outlines foreign ownership of mining or production tenements and exploration tenements at 30 June 2025, as taken from the Register of Foreign Ownership of Australian Assets (the Register).

The Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975 (FATA) defines foreign persons (which include temporary residents and entities with foreign ownership of 20% or more) and details registration requirements for those who acquire interests in specified Australian assets.

The Register is a live dataset of self-registrations of foreign-owned assets. The Register data related to mining or production tenements and exploration tenements is not a full stocktake of foreign ownership in Australian mining or production tenements and exploration tenements.

From 1 July 2023, foreign persons who acquire an interest in a mining or production tenement or exploration tenement may have to register the interest on the Register.

Aggregated data is available on data.gov.auExternal Link.

Registrations of interests in mining or production tenements and exploration tenements includes those:

• which were acquired between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2025, and
• where the interest continued to be held by the foreign person at 30 June 2025.

Information contained in the Register is protected and subject to the provisions of Division 355 of Schedule 1 of the Taxation Administration Act 1953 and Division 3 of Part 7 of the FATA. As such, the complete Register is not made publicly available, and this report presents aggregated information providing a view of all registrations at a point in time. Consistent with Australia’s foreign investment framework, the details of specific registrations or investors are not made publicly available, and information which could identify, or be used to identify, an individual or entity is excluded from this report.

Additionally, persons who acquired a legal interest in a mining or production tenement or exploration tenement and subsequently became foreign persons after 1 July 2023 may also be required to register. The FATA defines a mining or production tenement as an interest in a right to recover minerals, oil or gas, and includes an interest in:

• a right that preserves that right, or
• a lease under which a lessee has such a right.

An exploration tenement is defined in the FATA as an interest in a right to recover minerals, oil or gas for the purposes of prospecting or exploring for minerals, oil or gas, and includes:

• a right that preserves that right, or
• a lease under which a lessee has such a right.

Most types of foreign-owned legal interests in a mining or production tenement are registrable, regardless of monetary value. Registerable interests include freehold, leasehold, financial or mortgage interests and some royalty arrangements.

Additionally, foreign government investors that acquire equitable interests in mining or production tenements must also register their interest.

Generally, legal interests in exploration tenements are registrable if the interest is held by a foreign government investor or relates to national security land.

Foreign persons must register their mining or production tenement or exploration tenement interest within 30 days of either:

• acquiring the mining or production tenement or exploration tenement interest, or
• becoming a foreign person while holding the mining or production tenement or exploration tenement interest.

There is no national data source to benchmark the percentage of foreign ownership of mining or production tenements and exploration tenements.

The statistics on Australian mining or production tenements and exploration tenements are presented in each table by reference to either the number of register notices received or the number of discrete tenements to which register notices relate.

Total registered interests

Table 1 shows the number of registered interests in mining or production tenements and exploration tenements by state or territory. This includes as a mining licence holder, leasehold interest, financial interest, mortgage interest or royalty arrangement.

Table 1: Registered interests – Mining or production tenements and exploration tenements

State or territory	Mining or production (no.)	Exploration (no.)	Total
NSW/ACT	91	35	126
NT	<=5	<=5	<=5
Qld	107	20	127
SA	<=5	<=5	<=5
Tas	<=5	<=5	<=5
Vic	<=5	<=5	<=5
WA	448	145	593
Total	657	201	858

Notes:

• There may be instances where multiple interests in mining or production tenements and exploration tenements are registered on the same tenement.
• Due to the limited number of registrations in some states, some details have been withheld to maintain investor privacy and are denoted by <=5.

Figure 1 breaks down the 858 registered interests in mining or production tenements and exploration tenements shown in Table 1 into the interest types held.

Figure1: Registered interests – Type

Tenements with one or more registered interests

Table 2 shows the number of mining or production tenements and exploration tenements in each state or territory with one or more registered interests.

Table 2: Tenements with a registered interest

State or territory	Mining or production (no.)	Exploration (no.)	Total
NSW/ACT	89	35	124
NT	<=5	<=5	<=5
Qld	95	20	115
SA	<=5	<=5	<=5
Tas	<=5	<=5	<=5
Vic	<=5	<=5	<=5
WA	308	118	426
Total	503	174	677

Notes:

• This table accounts for the number of tenements with a registered interest. Where the same tenement has multiple owners or multiple registered interests, including as a mining licence holder, leasehold interest, financial interest, mortgage interest or a royalty arrangement, the tenement is only counted once. This accounts for the higher total figure in Table 1 as compared to the totals in Table 2.
• Due to the limited number of registrations in some states, some details have been withheld to maintain investor privacy and are denoted by<=5.

Tenements by industry sector

Table 3 shows the industry sector breakdown of registered mining or production tenements and exploration tenements categorised by Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) class. All ANZSIC classes in Table 3 are within ANZSIC Division B (Mining).

Registrants provide the appropriate ANZSIC details as part of the registration process. ANZSIC is a standard classification developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) for the analysis of industry statistics in Australia and New Zealand. A list of ANZSIC codes is detailed in the Business industry codes fact sheet (PDF, 929KB)This link will download a file.

Registered interests in mining or production tenements and exploration tenements at 30 June 2025 include a total of 17 ANZSIC classes.

Table 3: Registered interests by industry sector

Industry sector	ANZSIC class	Tenements with one or more registered interests (no.)	Portion of total registered tenements (%)
Bauxite mining	0802	31	4.6
Coal mining	0600	128	18.9
Gold ore mining	0804	162	23.9
Gravel and sand quarrying	0911	20	3.0
Iron ore mining	0801	17	2.5
Mineral exploration	1012	156	23.0
Oil and gas extraction	0700	37	5.5
Other construction material mining	0919	23	3.4
Other non-metallic mineral mining and quarrying	0990	58	8.6
Other	-	45	6.6
Total	-	677	100.0

Notes:

• Definitions of and facts about minerals mined in Australia are available on the Geoscience Australia websiteExternal Link.
• Due to the limited number of registrations, some industry sector details have been amalgamated and shown as the ‘Other’ category to maintain investor privacy. These industry sectors include copper ore mining, mineral sand mining, other metal ore mining, other mining support services and petroleum exploration.

Foreign and Australian share of registered interests

Figure 2 shows the percentage of the foreign share and the Australian share of registered interests in mining or production tenements and exploration tenements.

Tenements may have multiple interests registered, including as a:

• mining licence holder
• leasehold interest
• financial interest
• mortgage interest, or
• royalty arrangement.

As the Register records foreign person entities that have a foreign ownership share of 20% or more, there may be more than one nationality and some level of Australian ownership in the tenement. At 30 June 2025, of the 858 interests registered, 11.7% is indirectly held by Australian investors who have shares in entities considered foreign persons.

Figure 2: Foreign and Australian share of registered interests

Top 10 sources of foreign investment

Table 4 shows the top 10 source countries of registrations of mining or production tenements and exploration tenements.

Table 4: Registered interests – Top 10 countries

Country	Registered interests (no.)
United States of America	184
People's Republic of China	161
United Kingdom	129
Japan	100
Guernsey	75
British Virgin Islands	62
France	37
Malaysia	31
Switzerland	29
South Africa	28

At 30 June 2025, foreign persons from a total of 24 countries, excluding Australia, held an interest in mining or production tenements and exploration tenements.

Notes:

There are limitations to using the top sources of foreign investment data to determine the ultimate sources of investment into Australia:

• The source country is obtained from the registrant at the time of registration and maintained by the foreign person.
• Mining or production tenements and exploration tenements may be registered more than once due to the type of interest held by the foreign person.
• An interest may be held by a foreign person which has more than one shareholder, from more than one country.
• Where the registered owner is a company or trust, the nationality of the person (or persons) who appear to control the entity is used to attribute the source country, rather than the country of incorporation. Where the person who controls the entity is identified as an Australian citizen who is not ordinarily resident in Australia (and hence a foreign person), the source country is attributed to the country in which they are ordinarily resident.
• Where shares or interests are widely held for companies or trusts, depending on information available the interest in the asset is attributed to a source country based on the location of:
  • the directors
  • the fund manager, or
  • the country where the entity (or trustee) is headquartered or publicly listed.

  The source country statistical data may therefore include the presence of jurisdictions used by investment funds and their managers.

• The country of control is assessed using data resources within:
  • the ATO, and
  • agencies such as the Department of Home Affairs and the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC).