This project was the catalyst for the discovery in 2020 of Chalice Mining’s Gonneville deposit in Julimar, Western Australia, the world’s largest nickel sulphide discovery in more than 20 ...

A visitor walks in front of an iron ore carrier at Rio Tinto's Port Dampier operations in Western Australia, 1,250 kilometres (777 miles) north east of Perth, Australia, October 20, 2023.

Western Australia supplies more than half of the world's seaborne iron ore and half of its lithium. Its resources sector delivered A$254-billion ($167 billion) in sales in the 2022-2023 fiscal year.

Western Australia posted enviable growth numbers for a long time. But the trend is now going the wrong way, and unless something is done soon there will be difficult times ahead.

Joe Norton, a large man with a sun-burnt face, digs into a plate full of beef, potatoes, carrots and Brussels sprouts at Searipple, a mobile-home camp in Australia's western frontier.