The Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) defines mining as "the extraction of minerals occurring naturally as solids such as coal and ores, liquids such as crude petroleum, or gases such as natural gas". This encapsulates the processes of underground or open cut mining, dredging, quarrying, the operation of wells or evaporation pans, or by recovery from ore dumps or tailings. Other activities which are also considered part of mining are activities carried out at or near mine sites as an integral part of mining operations, to prepare the crude materials for marketing (including milling, dressing and beneficiation of ore, screening, washing and flotation, natural gas absorption, purifying and other related treatment works).
This view of mining is designed to include those organisations whose principal activity is mining. The mining activities undertaken by private individuals or organisations whose principal activity is not mining are excluded from the ANZSIC definition.
