MELBOURNE, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Australian state of Tasmania's mining industry could be dead within 10 years if current trends continue, an expert warned on Wednesday.
Ross Large, professor of geology at the University of Tasmania (UTAS), said that mining activity in the island state has been steadily declining for decades.
Mining made up 1.2 percent of Tasmania's economy in financial year to June 2017, compared to 6.9 percent in the 1970s.
"Mining used to be one of the major industries for Tasmania, a real producer, but more recently other industries have picked up and mining has declined," Large told Australian media on Wednesday.
He said that if the industry was to survive, the onus was on mining companies to invest in finding new mineral deposits.
"They're taking our resources but they're not putting money back into serious continuous exploration," Large said.
"So I would say the companies have a fault, the Government has a fault because they're not supporting the industry enough in terms of exploration again."
Saul Eslake, one of the state's most respected economist, said that a downturn in commodity prices was responsible for the decline of Tasmanian mining.
"It's not that the Tasmanian government is anti-mining, it's that most of the known mineral resources which Tasmania had ... have been more or less fully exploited," Eslake said.
"It appears that the mining industry has concluded that there isn't much point in spending a lot of money exploring for minerals in Tasmania because there aren't many to be found."
Tasmania's Premier Will Hodgman said that his government maintained a positive outlook for the mining sector.
"I think the fact that we're partnering with mining businesses that are in fact wanting to expand their exploration and to be part of Tasmania's mining sector shows that there is a more buoyant outlook," he said.
"Mining is still the largest export sector for our economy ... its importance to Tasmania's economy remains strong."
