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Celebrating
25

Paydirt marks its quarter century of reporting Years

Est.1994

jections from various pressure groups, the enous opportunities and gender equality. In media landscape is completely unrecognis-
Australian mining sector is a much stronger the coming decade, mining’s role in provid- able. However, Paydirt has navigated the
corporate citizen than it was 25 years ago. ing the materials needed for 21st century changes in both sectors and while continue
Environmental protection and workplace living will see it become even more socially striving to find the best stories on the con-
safety were the early winners but in the last responsible. stantly evolving resources landscape.
decade the sector has made tremendous If the resources sector has changed dra-
strides in promoting issues such as indig- matically over the last quarter century, the

Top 5 commodity trends since 1994

Iron Ore: country’s gold reserves for $US275/oz). been another damaging blow to ura-
However, less than a decade later, it was
nium’s position as “energy source of the
No one much thought about iron ore hitting all-time highs and is touching them future”. Lithium, graphite, cobalt, vana-
in the 90s; it was in the hands of the again, supporting the most vibrant Austral- dium, tin, nickel – numerous commodi-
majors and tied up in $US30-40/t an- ian gold sector in more than a generation ties have benefitted from association
nual contracts. As recently as 2003 the Uranium: with the new technologies. Most have
industry was producing less than 200 suffered from overinflated expectations,
mtpa but today 800 mtpa is exported out The mid-2000s boom in new nuclear power but the overall thematic is set to run for
of WA. FMG managed to break the BHP/ resulted in spot prices hitting $US200/lb in decades
Rio Tinto duopoly and while the global 2007. The GFC landed the first blow and Diamonds:
downturn put paid to several juniors, the then the Fukushima accident nearly finished
industry is unrecognisable the sector off. Miners and explorers all but Paydirt in the late-90s = extensive
Gold: vanished as quickly as they sprouted up diamond coverage; Paydirt in 2019
= no diamond exploration coverage.
and the country remains one of the largest
It remains a mainstay of the Australian min- sources of uranium reserves but only a The sector was active for more than a
ing landscape but has undergone several marginal producer of the energy metal decade but the GFC had a devastating
seismic shifts. By 2000, central banks had Battery minerals: effect and today the Australian diamond
abandoned it as a safe-haven asset (UK industry can be counted on one hand
Chancellor Gordon Brown sold half the Renewables and battery storage has

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT NOVeMBeR 2019 Page 19