AUSTRALIAN 'futurist' and Club of Rome member Dr Keith Suter has told a major NSW Minerals Council conference that the need for rare earths and other mineral commodities necessary for renewable energy technology will drive a new era of mining that will tap presently untouched areas including the polar regions and outer space.
The Sydney-based academic and commentator gave the keynote address to the mining peak body's nominally annual health, safety and environment conference - the first since 2019 because of pandemic restrictions.
Acknowledging he had been wrong about Russia's intention to invade Ukraine, Dr Suter took his 500-strong audience through the major global trends he described as a shift from "new world order" to "new world disorder".
"The world has multiple 'realities'," Dr Suter said.
"What may seem 'mad' to one person is not necessarily 'mad' to another. By Vladimir Putin's standards he has acted rationally.
"A Chinese attack on Taiwan may seem 'mad' to many Australians but not necessarily to the Chinese leadership."
At the same morning session, minerals council chief executive Stephen Galilee said that "whatever the future holds, the world will continue to need energy and mineral resources, and we have them, in abundance".
Mr Galilee said the minerals sector was enjoying some of the best market conditions in living memory, with high and sometimes record prices and strong demand, taking NSW mining employment to its highest level in a decade.
He said the NSW government received $3.7 billion in mining royalties in the year to June 30 (more than twice the $1.4 billion in 2020-21) and was on track to take $11 billion over the coming four years.
He said the industry understood the need to reduce its environmental impact and its rehabilitation record, but like Dr Suter, he said the push towards renewable energy depended on mining to obtain more commonplace minerals, including copper, as well as the all-important rare earths used in electronic equipment and batteries.
The theme of "multiple realities" also emerged in a presentation by advertising industry figure and Gruen panelist Carolyn Miller, who spoke on "trust in business, politics and institutions" and "how to build and maintain social licence in the post-COVID world".
Ms Miller said that although social media had ushered in a communications revolution, "mainstream" media was still regarded as more trustworthy.
She said that trust of institutions was "no longer the default position", and that the three areas were distrust was the highest were COVID, politics and climate change.
Climate change was central to the presentation from Dr Suter, who said that the Club of Rome's 1972 report, The Limits to Growth, was the biggest selling environmental publication of all time.
The Swiss-based organisation - sometimes criticised as an unelected body of elites - was founded in 1968. Its website describes it as a "diverse platform of thought leaders".
Dr Suter said he had been one of the club's 100 members since 1993.
"Always ask: what is the climate/environmental angle here?" Dr Suter said.
"The Club of Rome said the 20th century would be known as 'the century of economics' because that was when we worked out how to generate economic growth.
"The 21st century will be 'the century of the environment' as this planet comes to terms with the environmental consequences of that economic growth."
Dr Suter said all economic revolutions require new energy sources: Netherlands in the 17th century had wind and water. The industrial revolution in the UK was powered by coal. The US used oil in the 20th century.
"The solar industry, which China expects to dominate in the 21st century, will need rare earths," Dr Suter said.
"Expect to hear more about the rare earths coming from countries like Congo. A new era of mining activity is under way, with mining in such places as the Arctic, the Russian Far East and eventually the seabed and outer space."
Dr Suter said the invasion of Ukraine had forced "a more sombre appraisal" of a progress that had been based on a globalised world "knitted together" by trade.
He said "new theatres of war" were opening to include "outer space, cyber space and mental space".
He concluded by saying that Australia's isolation "in the quietest corner of the globe, surrounded by a giant moat" was a blessing, even with Asia on its "doorstep".
The conference at Crowne Plaza Hunter Valley concludes today.
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