By Connor McGoverne
Publication Date: 2026-03-22 07:00:00
The mining industry claims it can buck the trend of artificial intelligence causing a jobs bloodbath and instead spark an employment boom, shaving years off the wait for approvals for major developments in the process.
The Minerals Council of Australia will seek $13 million in the May federal budget to pilot AI, which it believes will deliver billions of dollars in long-term benefits to the economy by improving regulatory decision-making.
Some 26,000 households across the country are stuck in a permitting backlog, while the country’s peak miners’ body estimates that $51 billion worth of resource projects are in limbo…