Mining Industry in Australia: Recent Changes and Impacts

Running head: ECONOMICS
Economics
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Course ID

ECONOMICS1
Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................2
Market description.......................................................................................................................2
Mining in Australia...................................................................................................................2
Market participants..................................................................................................................3
Structure of the market............................................................................................................4
Changes in market condition and their impacts..........................................................................4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
List of References.......................................................................................................................7

ECONOMICS2
Introduction
In the Australia’s economy, among several other industries, mining industry is found to
play an important role. The industry attracts special attention due to its contribution in Gross
Domestic Product, generation of employment and earnings from export. Contribution of
Mining in the GDP of Australia is found to be nearly 7 percent. Mining accounts, a
considerably large share in total export of Australia. Large reserve of mineral resources has
helped to nation to develop a wide spread mining industry (O'faircheallaigh 2017). Most of the
minerals in Australia are exported across the world with least processing requirement in
onshore. Australia is among the top five leading producers of Gold, Iron Ore, Zinc, Nickel and
Lead. The mining industry undergone a long period of expansion known as resource boom
started in 2003. The glorious period mining remained till 2013. During this time Australia
enjoyed a favorable condition in terms of trade. Along with this exchange rate was in favor of
mining and global commodities price increased significantly. Australian significantly benefitted
during this time from rapid increase in exported minerals especially that of coal and iron ore
(Chapman, Plummer and Tonts 2015). The glorious period of mining however came to an end
after 2013 due to changes in global economic condition. The paper discusses recently
changing condition of mining industry in Australia in reference to published news article.
Market description
Mining in Australia
There are several mineral resources that are mined in Australia. Some of the important
minerals mined in Australia are discussed below
Gold Mining
In the history of Australian mining, Gold mining holds an important position. Back in the
period of early 1990, Australia experienced the first economic and mining boom by arrival of
Great Southern Land in form of gold rush. The boom in coal mining during the colonial era
attracted many people all around the world with the dream of becoming rich using Australia’s
soil. In modern Australian economy, gold mining has a crucial role. In the global market,
Australia is known as the second biggest producers of Gold taking place only behind China.
The industry produced nearly 287.3 metric tonnes of gold as recorded in 2016. Gold mining in
Australia account nearly 9 percent of world’s output (ig.com. 2019). In the Australian
economy, Gold ranked third in the list of exported commodity after coal and iron ore. In the
industry, one major player is Newcrest Mining. The company specializes in mining, exploring
and sales of gold and gold-copper product.
Coal mining
Coal is one major exported minerals of Australia. Through export coal provides one
major source of income to the economy. Australia has a good trade relation with emerging
Asian economies. With a large stock of coal Australia has played an important role in
economic rise of these nations. In the global economy, Australia is regarded as the fourth
largest producers of coal after United State, China and India. Australia is also the largest
exporter of coal in the world (Minerals.org.au. 2019). In the past few years, demand for coal
has decline significantly due to the shift towards a sustainable resources and cleaner energy
production. Large scale players in the industry like BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto are still able to
draw large amount of profit from coal mining.