Prime Minister Julia Gillard today announced that the Australian Labor Party will debate its opposition to exporting uranium to India. India, which is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty…
Activists protest against Glencore by placing bottles of polluted water at its Swiss offices.
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Welcome to “The most powerful companies you’ve never heard of” – an ongoing series from The Conversation that sheds light on big companies with low profiles. Today, The University of Western Australia’s…
Working to improve the performance of the resources sector is a challenging, yet important research focus.
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There is common assumption that those of us who undertake applied research with the commercial world must be biased. This month the University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI), which…
Despite strong export data, Australia’s trade relationship with China isn’t as developed as we think.
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AUSTRALIA IN ASIA: In the seventh part of our series, James Laurenceson looks at the challenges in doing business with China. The headline numbers surrounding Australia’s exports to China make for impressive…
Exporting uranium carries a risk not just in Australia, but all over the world.
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The South Australian and Federal governments have approved another expansion at Olympic Dam. This expansion raises some very important questions about Australia’s role in the future of global energy and…
Is this the place for an antimony mine? I guess that depends what an antimony mine is…
Karl Vernes
Hands up those who’ve heard of antimony. Now, keep them up if you can name its chemical symbol, list the world’s leading producers, or even name a single commercial product that contains the element. Most…
Making Australian miners more ethical could also make them more competitive.
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Recent high prices for minerals have inspired a lot of companies and countries to start mining. But with a lead-time of up to five years for developing a mining operation, it is difficult to take advantage…
Is it possible to have an ice-skating rink in an old mine? Or perhaps a wine and cheese cellar in a mine shaft? Or even a swimming pool in a processing plant? It isn’t just possible – it can be environmentally…
Dharawal National Park is safe from mining, but do we value biodiversity enough to spread protection?
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The New South Wales government last week said it would ban mining in the newly announced Dharawal National Park, an area where Illawara Coal was planning to extract up to $40 billion worth of black coal…
Five senior executives of the Chinese-owned investor Hanlong Mining have had assets frozen after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) launched an investigation into alleged insider…
Expansion is behind a transitory decline in the mining sector productivity growth: but what’s the picture for other sectors?
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Official explanations of the deterioration in Australia’s productivity growth have tended to emphasise the especially sharp declines in three sectors – agriculture, mining, and utilities (such as electricity…
Don Argus’s focus on industrial relations overlooks the real issues behind slowing productivity growth.
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Former BHP Billiton Chairman Don Argus has blamed inflexible industrial relations laws for Australia’s lagging productivity, describing the Gillard Government’s economic reform agenda as “lazy”. Argus…
People employed in the mining industry are enjoying the boom, but what about the rest of us?
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One of the most interesting features of the mining boom is the way that it is opening up old, and unresolved, political and policy debates in Australia. Do we trust that the benefits to the small group…
Cate Blanchett is among the celebrities pressed into service to persuade us on political issues.
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MEDIA & DEMOCRACY: This afternoon, Andrew Hughes examines which recent political adverts have been a success, as part of The Conversation’s week-long series on how the media influences the way our…
They’re digging it up, but they’re not sharing it around.
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AFTER THE INTERVENTION: Ciaran O'Faircheallaigh of Griffith University explains why mineral wealth rarely ends up in Indigenous hands. Native title creates the potential for indigenous communities to share…
What can you do with a hole in the ground? It’s about more than planting trees.
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In late 1986, residents of Diamond St, Kingston, an outer southern suburb of Brisbane, began to notice a black sludge-like substance seeping through the soil and into their gardens. Within six months…
Iron ore is now Australia’s biggest export.
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Australia’s economic future lies underneath our feet. The island continent is blessed with a variety of natural resources but none as plentiful or important as iron ore. Iron is a common element in soils…
Greens leader Bob Brown’s concern over acquisitions by China’s Shenhua Watermark Coal of farms on NSW’s Liverpool Plains is but the latest flurry in a gathering storm of controversy over mining developments…