‘Minerals in the Australian economy’ is of course a big topic. On the one hand that means it is inevitable that major issues are not discussed. On the other hand it means that the contributor has a lot of scope to select what to talk about.

The position here is not to question the peak mineral thesis but to explore what that would mean for the Australian economy more widely.

Just to be clear though; much of the discussion below accepts the peak production thesis which suggests production will peak in the near future and decline thereafter.