The Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia (CME) is a peak

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...

and employers' association in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

(WA).

It originated with previous bodies that emerged during the 1890s in the

Goldfields Goldfield or Goldfields may refer to: Places * Goldfield, Arizona, the former name of Youngberg, Arizona, a populated place in the United States * Goldfield, Colorado, a community in the United States * Goldfield, Iowa, a city in the United Sta ...

region. The Coolgardie Chamber of Mines and Commerce, founded in 1895, was followed in 1896 by a separate

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includ ...

Chamber of Mines. A

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

Chamber of Mines, founded in 1897, quickly became defunct.CME, 2015, ''About Us CME History''
(5 February 2017). The Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie bodies merged in 1900, as the Chamber of Mines of Western Australia. The headquarters of the combined body were in the Kalgoorlie Chamber of Mines building. It formed a security unit known as "The Bureau", to prevent and investigate gold theft and, from 1907, the chamber financed the WA Police Gold Squad (known later as the Gold Stealing Detection Unit), initially with an annual contribution of £2,000 per annum (more than $275,000 in 2016).Kalgoorlie Miner, 4 Nov 1907, p. 4. In the 1960s, other geological resources and regions became significant, such as

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

, oil and

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

in the

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Aboriginal peoples; its ancient landscapes; the red earth; and its vast mineral deposits, in particular iron ore. It is also a glo ...

, along with

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to ...

bauxite Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (Al(OH)3), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)) and diaspore (α-AlO(O ...

and

mineral sands Heavy mineral sands are a class of ore deposit which is an important source of zirconium, titanium, thorium, tungsten, rare-earth elements, the industrial minerals diamond, sapphire, garnet, and occasionally precious metals or gemstones. Heavy m ...

elsewhere, the organisation was renamed the Chamber of Minerals and Energy. It later moved to purpose-built headquarters in Perth.

Footnotes

Organizations established in 1895 Employers' organizations Mining in Western Australia Organisations based in Perth, Western Australia Labour relations in Australia Mining organisations in Australia 1895 establishments in Australia {{mining-stub

See also

Footnotes