[miningmx.com] — AUSTRALIA is facing a mining boom with greater challenges and fewer rewards, Treasurer Wayne Swan said on Wednesday, warning there will not be “rivers of gold” like earlier commodities rushes.
Resilient Asian demand for its coal, iron ore and other resources helped Australia stare down the global downturn as the only advanced economy to escape recession, elevating its terms of trade to 140-year highs.
Describing it as an “unprecedented boom in mining investment”, Swan said spending next financial year was expected to more than double.
“Think about that: if realised, it will account for more than half of total private business investment in the economy, despite representing less than one-tenth of total production,” Swan said in a speech to the press.
But the “extraordinary new levels of income flowing into Australia” were not translating into government revenues, with the terms of trade already historically high and likely to fall as global supply of commodities expanded.
