Mining has had a lot of body blows but it is far from dead and buried: Diggers and Dealers told – by Babs McHugh (Australian Broadcasting Corporation – August 1, 2016)

http://www.abc.net.au/

There is a lot of conjecture about whether the famous American author and raconteur, Mark Twain, did actually quip ‘reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated’ after being told about his own obituary in The New York Journal in May, 1897.

But for the almost 2,000 delegates at the 25th Diggers and Dealers Mining Conference in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Western Australia, reports and commentary that Australia’s mining industry is dead and buried are indeed greatly exaggerated.

After a frenetic and almost uncontrolled focus on producing high volumes, with little thought of the consequences of high costs during the construction boom, the sector has indeed undergone a sharp correction.

Economic conditions deteriorated globally and the largest market, and therefore driver of the activity, China, slowed down much harder and faster than anticipated.

But from aggregate for concrete, copper for power transmission, iron ore for structural steel and so on, mined products underpin development. “Mining isn’t going anywhere soon, it’s still a significant industry,” Scott Grimley of business advisory outfit Ernst and Young said.

For the rest of this article, click here: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-02/mining-far-from-dead-and-buried/7679946