dwell for long on the geology of Australia -- except to say that it is a happy hunting ground and much of it is untested by modern exploration methods, nor on the size and composition of the mineral industry as it presently exists except to mention that the annual value of production appears destined to increase from $700 million today to $1 billion by 1970, nor at any particular length on the new and exciting discoveries of iron ore, oil and gas, coking coal, and bauxite that are changing the nature of the Australian mining picture and attracting very substantial amounts of new capital to that country. All this information is either known to you or readily available to you through mining journals. Rather I would like to put the emphasis on the principal factors both economic and governmental that seem to me to have an important bearing upon the business and investment climate of Australia and that tend to distinguish it from other areas of the world. Australia has long been a major factor in the world picture for precious metals and some of the major non ferrous metals, but the past ten years have seen a decided quickening of the tempo of exploration efforts in Australia, as well as a broadening of these efforts to include many of the bulk raw material commodities required by industrial nations. The reasons for this upsurge are many -- the attraction of demonstrated and undeveloped mineral wealth Australia's strategic location as a raw material supplier for the burgeoning requirements of Japan's heavy metal-working industry -- the design and construction of very large ocean carriers which make it feasible to transport low priced commodities throughout the world -- -5-