Australia Moves into Biggest Ever Mining Boom

The federal treasurer Wayne Swan predicted that Australia would move into its biggest mining boom phase in October, possibly the largest since the 1850s.

This seems to have been backed up by statistic released by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics. The figures reveal that the planned mining and energy investments have risen to a record $132.9 billion in October

This is thanks to 72 projects at an advanced stage of development at the end of last month. The 21% increase in capital expenditure since April last year is in part due to the 17 coal projects that have added another 50 million tonnes a year to the production capacity of Australia.

Rio Tinto’s decision to expand its iron ore production capacity by 60 million tons over the next three years is also a major contributing factor, as is the decision to develop BG Group’s Queensland Curtis Island LNG facility. The boom in the resources is really reverberating in all sections of the mining industry.