Perception has the unfortunate
habit of becoming reality. Urban inhabitants unfortunately do not regard mining
as a legitimate or desirable business, despite its contribution to Australia's
export income (+A $8,000 million, being nearly a third of all exports); share of
GDP (it is 4.5%); and the fact that its presence fills up all the empty spaces
northwest of the Adelaide-Melbourne-Sydney-Brisbane crescent of inhabitation.
The huge economic contribution of Australia's minerals industry, resulting from
providing more than half of merchandise exports (Figure 1), is achieved by
employing only some 2% of the national work force (Gaulton, 1997).
Unfortunately, the minerals industry's critics generally oppose exploration on
the basis that what you don't know will not hurt you. It is the
'do-not-confuse-me-with-facts'
philosophy or 'ostrich syndrome', which somehow crudely assumes that mining
practices have stayed in the style popular circa late 1800s. Somehow ignorance
really is bliss for these idealistic believers, who are reminiscent of the
members of the Flat Earth Society!