Metal Projects
About Metals
Australia is the world's largest producer of zinc and lead, the third largest producer of gold and silver and the fifth largest producer of copper. Australia is also well endowed with world class deposits of nickel, tin, iron ore and rare earth elements. The demand for metals is generally determined by the state of the world's economy and should be considered together with estimates of global inventories. A strong steady rise in the industrial output of China, in particular, has seen global stockpiles for all metals, with the exception of zinc, drop dramatically to all time lows over the past two years. A shortage of excess supply in the world market translates to continued support for record high prices for most metals and a period of sustained growth within Australia's mining industry.