Australian Development Gateway

The Australian Development Gateway (ADG) strives to support members of the development community in their efforts to reduce poverty and enhance sustainable development in the Asia Pacific region. The site has been created with participation from members of government, private, academia and non-government organisations. User feedback mechanisms have been incorporated to guide future directions of the site. The site is optimised for low bandwidth access to enable the widest participation throughout the Asia Pacific region.

Skip to content

ADG channels:

Information by sector: Environment

Sub navigation

ADG TOOLBOX

Land & resource management

The sustainability of mining in Australia: key production trends & environmental implications

This report has been undertaken to determine the long term sustainability of a range of Australia's mineral resources. It is the first  comprehensive analysis of Australian mineral  production figures gathered since the beginning of the mining industry.

The report is the first to ever compile quantitative evidence on various mining trends and demonstrates that :
- Ore grades continue to decline - meaning more rock needs to be mined to maintain production
- Solid wastes are increasing exponentially - such as tailings and waste rock - which increases the environmental burden of metal and mineral production
- Economic resources for many key strategic minerals appear to have plateaued (eg. coal, iron ore)
- Some minerals have gradually increased (eg. gold, copper) over time but this is proving harder to maintain as ore grades decline and deposits move deeper

The report presents the findings that the implications of these combined trends suggest that the environmental footprint of mining looks set to substantively increase into the future. This includes higher energy, water and chemicals consumption as well as higher greenhouse emissions.

The report is available for download from this page.

 

Footer: