The Mining “New Frontier”

Government Required to Adapt to Symbiotic Processing 

The mining industry is entering a new frontier defined not by the discovery of new deposits, but by the transformation of how resources are recovered. Advances in processing technologies now allow operators to extract multiple minerals from a single integrated system through what can be described as “symbiotic processing.” Salar brine operations in South America concentrating lithium, geothermal brines in the USA yielding battery minerals, and legacy Ni tailings  reprocessed for rare earth elements all demonstrate this shift. In these systems, one primary operation alters the chemical or physical environment in ways that make additional minerals economically recoverable — minerals that may not have been viable under traditional single-commodity extraction models. 

However, mineral law in both the United States and Australia remains largely commodity-specific. In the U.S., mineral rights are divided across distinct statutory regimes — locatable, leaseable, and salable minerals — each governed separately. In Australia, although mineral ownership is centralized under state legislation, mining leases still authorise extraction of specified minerals rather than entire resource systems. In both jurisdictions, operators may lawfully create conditions that concentrate additional valuable minerals but lack automatic legal authority to recover them. The legal framework is built around discrete mineral entitlements, not integrated processing ecosystems. 

This misalignment creates regulatory friction and potential inefficiencies. Valuable co-products may remain stranded, stockpiled, or legally inaccessible despite being technically recoverable and environmentally advantageous to extract within existing operations. Meanwhile, other rights holders may be unable to access the resource without disrupting the primary operation that enabled its formation. The law, developed during eras of single-commodity extraction, does not fully accommodate process interdependence or industrial symbiosis. 

As critical minerals become strategically important and sustainability pressures intensify, governments in both countries may need to evolve their frameworks to recognize integrated, multi-mineral recovery systems. Reform could include more flexible lease amendments, coordinated royalty structures, or statutory mechanisms that acknowledge symbiotic processing as a legitimate mode of development. The future of mining may depend not only on technological innovation, but on the capacity of regulatory systems to adapt to this new paradigm of resource recovery.