The resource sector has changed considerably in the last 30 years. In 1991 gold was by far the number one resource contributing to the economy of Western Australia.

As you can see from the chart below, things started to change with the mining boom at the start of the new millennium. China’s rise as a global economic superpower, changed the face of mining in Western Australia forever with their insatiable appetite for high-quality iron ore, to help fuel a construction boom across the country.

The advent of smartphones and the high consumer demand for them helped increase our exports of nickel, lithium and other rare earth metals.

Now, with a new era of electric vehicles, we’re starting to see an increase in the export of rare earth metals such as dysprosium, along with lithium, nickel and cobalt.