Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/122153
miningreview Australia is banking on the mining and energy resources boom to keep the good times rolling. But what if it doesn't turn out as planned? By Jeremy Chunn. E xpectations about the iron ore scooped out of WA and the coal shipped from Queensland and NSW are so high you'd be forgiven for thinking the country will drop into the ocean without these resources. Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has pretty much hung his job on the two commodities. A lot of hope also hangs on liquefied natural gas (LNG), with projects worth about $200 billion being built so Australia can bank on decades worth of trade with buyers in Asia. Sounds great, if everything stays on course. But maybe it's a good time to consider what might go wrong? Plenty, it turns out. The US and Canada have found massive new reserves of shale gas in their own backyards, much more than they need. (Shale gas is accessed further down in the earth than conventional rigs can reach. Advances in drilling 56 have brought it to prominence since 2000.) As for iron ore, Africa's got a heap of it. And coal for China? Well, why not mine Mongolia, just a few hundred kilometres up the road? Such scenarios would see Australia fall to the canvas. In May last year the International Energy Agency (IEA) issued a report that outlined the potential for a global gas bonanza to deliver cheap energy and economic growth, so long as energy companies and governments act responsibly towards communities and the environment. If big business and governments make a hash of it, the IEA said, the deepest irony is they would be worse off than everyone else. But if all goes to plan, there is potential for the US and China to emerge as major producers. "It's an energy revolution or transformation within the US," says Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics