ABSTRACT

Australia belongs to the group of countries termed the resources periphery of the developed market-economy world which includes Canada, South Africa and, for some purposes, Norway, New Zealand and Iceland. Views concerning the issues have turned several somersaults since the prosperous days of the 1960s. The aluminium industry links together three major siting-sensitive factors of production, bauxite, electric power and market outlets. The European industry kept relying on the bauxites of the Southern European countries, where prospecting and development were largely based on the visual identification of the striking red surface outcrops of the deposits. The bauxite producers of the developing world and Australia have managed to set up between them the second most viable mineral producers' organisation after Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, in the shape of IBA, the International Bauxite Association.