So many things in our modern world are either made from minerals or are produced with the help of minerals.
Minerals are essential to produce materials required for construction and manufacturing. Like iron ore, which is used to make steel with the help of coking coal. Coking coal is also used to make cement.
Electricity generated from thermal coal is part of the world’s energy mix.
In NSW, electricity generated from coal helps us to heat and cool our homes, keep the lights on, prepare and preserve the food we eat, as well as supplying us with fresh drinking water. Thermal coal also provides a stable and affordable energy supply to keep NSW businesses thriving each day.
NSW has an abundance of these vital minerals. In addition to coal, NSW has deposits of metallic minerals such as gold, copper, silver, lead, zinc and cobalt, and industrial minerals like mineral sands, clays and limestone. These minerals are owned by the NSW Government on behalf of the people of NSW.
The extraction of these minerals provides the essential elements required for generating energy, manufacturing and products. It also provides employment and a significant economic return to the state.
Taxes and royalties from mined coal and minerals are paid to the NSW Government to help provide the infrastructure we rely on like roads, new train lines and bridges. And they help our nurses, teachers and police do their jobs.
Plus, the money spent by our miners and their families in Sydney and mining communities, as well as the businesses that supply our mines, flows through towns across NSW and the state economy.
Copper is the third most-consumed metal in the world, after iron and aluminium. In NSW there are mining operations producing copper, which is usually mined from the same mineral deposits as gold, in places including Orange, Dubbo, Parkes, Cobar and West Wyalong.
