Australia may well sit back and relax as its mining sector will continue to support its economic stability in the next five years at least.

Latest data from the 'Mining Industry Major Projects - October 2011' report of the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE) showed committed capital investment into the country's already booming resources industry grew 34 per cent to A$231.8 billion (US$229.8 billion) in the six months ended Oct. 31.

This comes as good news ahead of the mid-year Budget update that Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan is expected to release today. Analysts, economists and the whole of Australia anticipate federal government will create cuts in spending after it announced earlier some $20 billion was stripped from revenue due to the global financial meltdown, particularly in the eurozone.

Projects in petroleum, iron ore and coal dominated the investment growth, which happened to be areas to be affected by the Government's minerals resource rent tax. Overall, oil and gas, iron ore and coal and associated infrastructure accounted for 93 per cent of the total committed capital expenditure, Quentin Grafton, BREE's executive director and chief economist, said.

"The record level of committed capital expenditure will underpin growth in Australia's mineral and energy exports over the medium and long term," Grafton said.

Some 102 projects comprise the committed developments for Australia's mining sector, of which are in various advanced stages of progress, either committed or under construction. These include 40 minerals projects, 37 energy projects, 21 infrastructure projects and four mineral processing projects, Grafton added.

The hike in capital investments over the six months to April were largely driven by three major Liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in Western Australia and the Queensland by Wheatstone, APLNG and Prelude, whose collective capital cost is no more than $50 billion. WA projects accounted for 64 per cent of the total while Queensland accounted 30 per cent.

Resources Minister Martin Ferguson said the value of advanced major resources projects grew 16 times over a decade ago, when advanced minerals and energy projects were valued at just $14.3 billion.