WA digs up and sells more than $200 billion of minerals and petroleum a year. The ground belongs to the people of the State. Here is what the State collects in return, using the Government's own published figures.
Source: DEMIRS, WA Mineral and Petroleum Statistics Digest 2024-25 (published May 2026). Sales rounded; royalties include about $670m in North West Shelf grants.
In 2024-25 WA sold about $220 billion of minerals and petroleum: $171 billion of minerals and $50 billion of petroleum. Iron ore alone was $122 billion, and almost all of it leaves the country: $115 billion of iron ore exports against $122 billion of sales. Most of it pays royalty as crushed or screened ore, the least processed category.
All bars on one scale. Selected commodities only. Source: DEMIRS Statistics Digest 2024-25.
Petroleum is left out of this chart on purpose. WA's own petroleum royalties only apply onshore and within three nautical miles of the coast. Production further out falls under Commonwealth law: North West Shelf royalties, for example, are collected by the Commonwealth, with WA receiving a share as grants (about $670m in 2024-25). So the State's own petroleum royalty figure ($18m) leaves out much of what the public collects from WA oil and gas. That needs its own page.
Source: WA Government, Petroleum royalties (Department of Mines, Petroleum and Exploration); DEMIRS Statistics Digest 2024-25.
WA charges a royalty on the value of what is sold. The rate depends on how processed the product is. The less processing done here, the higher the rate, but even the top rate is 7.5 cents in the dollar.
Source: Mineral royalties in WA fact sheet (Sept 2025); Mining (Royalties) Regulations 2025. Some projects pay rates set in State Agreement Acts instead.
| Commodity, 2024-25 | Sales | Royalty | Back per $100 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iron ore | $122b | $8.6b | $7.05 |
| Lithium | $4.3b | $249m | $5.79 |
| Nickel | $2.1b | $64m | $3.05 |
| Gold | $29b | $655m | $2.26 |
| All minerals and petroleum | $220b | $10.6b | $4.82 |
Sales and royalties: DEMIRS Statistics Digest 2024-25. "Back per $100" is our arithmetic on those two columns, not a government figure. Sales and royalty timing don't line up exactly, so treat it as a guide.
Royalties aren't the only money mining companies pay. They also pay company tax on their profits, which goes to the Commonwealth. That's tax on the business. The royalty is the price paid to the public for the resource itself, and that's what this page measures.
WA Treasury expects total royalty income to fall by about a third over the next four years. Almost all of the drop is iron ore.
$ million. Solid = actual or estimated actual; dashed = forecast. Source: WA Treasury, Royalty Income Forecasts, 2026-27 Budget (May 2026). Treasury and DEMIRS count royalties slightly differently, so their totals differ.
Norway found oil in the 1960s and decided the profits belonged to the public. It doesn't charge a royalty on sales at all. It taxes the profit, and banks the State's share in a fund for future generations.
Royalty on the value of sales of minerals. Paid into general revenue and spent each year.
Tax on petroleum profits: 22% company tax plus 71.8% special tax. No royalty. The State's income goes into the Government Pension Fund Global.
These two numbers measure different things. A royalty is charged on sales whether or not the company makes money; Norway's tax is charged on profit. So you can't line them up as "7.5 vs 78". What you can compare is the choice each made: who the resource is run for, and whether the money is spent or saved.
Norway's fund was worth NOK 22,014 billion at 30 September 2026, built from petroleum income and the returns on investing it.
Sources: Norwegian Petroleum, "The petroleum tax system"; Norges Bank Investment Management, third-quarter 2026 results (reported 22 October 2026).
Whichever government collects it, the money from the ground should leave the country stronger: more industries, more skilled jobs, more of the value made here instead of overseas. The numbers above show where WA sits today. Most of the value leaves as raw product, the State keeps a few cents in the dollar, and that share is forecast to fall.
MineralSight's job is to keep those numbers in plain view, so the question of what we build next gets asked with the facts on the table.