i never quite believed in the resources boom as 'stronger for longer'. yes, the terms of trade that for thousands of years had been moving away from primary production has in the last few decades turned back (yay of australia).
but to say this boom will continue for australia for decades shows an insular focus- we have lots of fine deposits, but so does the third world. all we have is a first mover advantage, we had a worldclass mining industry already underway. over the next decades china will continue what it has started in earnest over the last decade, of reaching out to the third world to supply it with resources at cheap prices. the link below is a prime example (definitely not isolated).
australia will continue to do well from resources, just not with as high prices as we have seen in the last 5 years. the third world by its nature is less stable, so australia will still see the odd price spike when there are supply constraints in the third world.
australia (and canada, perhaps also russia) still have the highest inground (and economically-extractible) wealth per capita in the world. we don't have the gov't debt that usa has. we will continue to be a very lucky country.
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