World-class energy and mineral resources

South Australia offers world-class mineral and energy resources the world needs for the global carbon reduction agenda and today's technology driven world, backed by a track record of policy certainty in supporting investment.

South Australia's world-leading energy system successfully integrates over 75% of wind and solar resources firmed by gas and batteries. The state has some of the world's best complementary wind and solar resources. The Hydrogen and Renewable Energy Act provides a pathway for the development of 80 petajoules of renewable energy resources.

South Australia's energy leadership is directly connected to the state's mineral wealth.

Copper is central to wind turbines, solar, battery storage, electric vehicles and charging stations. South Australia hosts 66% of Australia's copper reserves, with a readiness for more investment to cater for a predicted global doubling in demand by 2050. Leading copper mining assets, include Olympic Dam (Cu/Au/U), Carrapateena (Cu/Au/Ag) and Prominent Hill (Cu/Au/Ag) and the Oak Dam discovery is advancing.

Demand for low-emissions energy sources continue to grow and many countries rely on nuclear power energy for electricity.  South Australia is well placed to meet that need with over 89% of Australia's uranium resource, on top of being a reliable suppler of uranium for 37 years for the peaceful purpose of generating electricity.

As countries push to decarbonise steelmaking, South Australia is ready to respond with more than 19 billion tonnes of magnetite iron ore. This magnetite, can be transformed into a suitable green iron feedstock with specialised processing, ready for the world's steelmakers to cut emissions.

South Australia is rapidly emerging as a centre for critical mineral investment with new discoveries, strategic investments and commercial milestones.

In 2026 Nyrstar has shipped its first Australian-produced commercial grade of antimony, used to strengthen alloys, semiconductors, fire-retardant materials and in defence.

South Australia hosts 34% of Australia's economic graphite with the Siviour project moving to develop a graphite demonstration facility in Adelaide.

Following seven years of investigation into research and metallurgical testing, the Great White Project on Eyre Peninsula is well positioned to become a leading supplier of High Purity Aluminium for expanding markets that include LED lighting, synthetic sapphire glass in smartphones, and semiconductors.

Jacinth-Ambrosia, operating since 2009, stands among the world's largest zircon mines, also producing significant amounts of ilmenite and rutile, the main raw materials for titanium.

More recently, titanium heavy mineral sands have been discovered at Muckanippie in the state's far north in an area prospective for platinum group elements and vanadium.

As industry activity accelerates, the completed three year Critical Minerals Project from our Geological Survey of South Australia has laid a strong foundation to unearth more discoveries. The project has catalogued South Australia's resource inventory, revisited legacy drill core samples, and produced highly precompetitive data with over 40 publications detailing the state's prospectivity, and interactive dashboards.

Critical Minerals South Australia project - dashboard

Critical Minerals South Australia webpage

The Cooper-Eromanga basin, is Australia's most strategic hydrocarbon province. The Moomba Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Facility is world class, and  has successfully stored more than 1.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide since operations began in 2025. Investors looking to increase their competitiveness in a carbon constrained future, will find our large endowment of onshore storage reservoirs are ripe for investment in new technologies like CCS).

Our competitive advantage

  • Stable and low-risk destination for investment, with The Fraser Institute Annual Survey of Mining Companies 2025 (published February 2026) ranked South Australia:
    • 4th in the world for investment attractiveness
    • 1st for best practises in mineral potential
    • 3rd for geological databases.
  • Low-cost clean energy, world class universities and home to Australia’s space and defence industries, is making South Australia a destination of choice for international companies looking to achieve global competitive advantage in a net zero environment.
  • Pro-business government, highly skilled workforce, and enviable lifestyle makes South Australia one of the great boutique regions of the world, renowned for our wine, food, clean living and climate.
  • Ideally placed for businesses looking to access the Australian market, and key, fast-growing Asian markets such as China, India and South-East Asia.

A well-connected ecosystem

With a population of 1.9 million (as of June 2025), with 1.27 million in Adelaide, our size is our unique advantage.

South Australia is home to some of the best innovation and business precincts where industry, academia and government are working together to accelerate innovation, entrepreneurship, research and technical solutions to global challenges.

Tonsley Innovation District is home to leading energy and mining businesses, start-ups, research centres and educational institutes including the Onshore Petroleum Centre of Excellence, the South Australia Drill Core Library, Australian Hydrogen Centre, Hydrogen Park SA, SIMEC Energy Australia and ZEN Energy, Tesla’s Australasian Service Centre, CMW Geosciences and TAFE SA.

SA-H2H Hydrogen Technology Cluster is the home of hydrogen technology collaboration in South Australia, where members work together to build market scale links between hydrogen projects targeting domestic and export markets.

CORE Innovation Hub works with start-ups, SMEs, researchers, suppliers and industry partners to connect and collaborate across the mining, resources and energy sectors.

Heavy Industry Low Carbon Transition – Cooperative Research Centre links companies with researchers to develop solutions that will enable heavy industry to compete in the low-carbon global economy.

Energy Resources Summit brings together more than 2,250 representatives from over 1,150 organisations including industry, governments, and peak representative bodies to share information about the latest developments in the upstream natural gas and oil sector.

Australian Critical Minerals Research Centre is world-renowned for expertise in novel isotope geochemistry, mineral geochemistry and geophysics, which it is using to develop new exploration tools; boost understanding of critical mineral ores and mineral chemistry; and provide research that is commercialised by industry.

For companies locating to and/or expanding in South Australia, the South Australian Government provides extensive support and case management services.