Thirty ministers from the booming new mining world in Asia, Africa and the Pacific are flying to Sydney next week for two conferences aimed at helping them reap the maximum benefits and avoid the downsides, including soaring currencies and sinking ecologies. 

They are among about 600 delegates who will attend AusAID”s Mining for Development conference. Most will stay on for the two-yearly meeting of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative that follows.

The ministers are from countries including Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Mongolia, Iraq, Guatemala and Papua New Guinea. Solomon Islands Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo will also attend.

Peter Baxter, the director-general of AusAID, which is organising the event, told The Australian it was crucial to get the policy settings right for the resources sector, which in Africa, for example, brought the continent six times the income it received from aid.

Mr Baxter said most of the world”s prospective countries “happen to be developing countries”, providing them with a big opportunity to reduce poverty.

The conferences will also include leaders of mining companies and non-government organisations from around the world, and heads of aid agencies.

“Mining can help poor people directly, by employing them and buying their products — but relatively few people get jobs in mines,” Mr Baxter said.

“In PNG, for instance, the resources sector provides 70 per cent of export earnings, but just 3 per cent of jobs in the formal sector.”

The chief benefits, he said, should come from improved services from governments and local community groups, through taxes and royalties.

“Australians are recognized as world champions in turning rocks into prosperity, and making sure it also flows to people living around mining sites,” he said. “Our experiences with indigenous landowners, in fragile and remote environments, is very relevant for mining in other countries.”

AusAID was helping develop programs for a wide range of developing nations, because “we are seen as a country that has got mining right — turning it into benefits for the whole nation, not just for the elites.”

AusAID has set up a committee to advise how to shape these initiatives, which includes representatives of BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Newcrest. And Geoscience Australia is helping to map the resources in partner countries.

In a new thrust for AusAID, the organisation — with a $5.6 billion budget just announced — will help developing countries establish a business environment that will foster private sector investment.

Their governments, said Mr Baxter, were being assisted to draw up mining agreements and set up revenue channels.