Most people on waking up in the morning would be thinking of anything other than minerals. I am an exception, as are the thousands of people who work directly and indirectly in a sector that produces the materials we all need every day of our lives.

Minerals and mining are essential to New Zealand’s low-emissions transition. More mining is an inescapable reality, as the World Bank and the International Energy Agency have pointed out. We import most minerals as finished products.but locally the minerals industry also contributes to regional economic development, to jobs and to exports. Exports are always important to our economy but are particularly important in this Covid-19 world.