Ratings agency Moody's expects the Australian mining sector to continue to benefit from strong Chinese demand, despite slowing growth in the world's second largest economy.
Moody's says that although Chinese growth in coming years will be slower than it has been over the past two decades, it will still be at a "relatively solid rate".
"We expect that to continue for at least several years to come and that will underpin demand for Australian minerals and other commodities," Moody's senior vice president Steven Hess told AAP.
"We've already been seeing iron ore exports going up at a very rapid rate over the last year, so the volume of exports has actually already begun to see the benefit of that, despite somewhat slower growth in China and somewhat lower prices.
"Volumes have been quite impressive."
Moody's retained Australia's AAA credit rating this week, saying the nation's position was not in jeopardy despite a forecast budget deficit of $29.8 billion for the next financial year.
Mr Hess said Australia fared extremely well among its global peers, boasting the second-lowest level of government debt of any of Moody's 14 AAA rated countries.
"Australia also has one of the more favourable growth outlooks among those countries, so the ability to maintain that at a low level is underpinned by Australia's economic performance which, relative to some of the other AAA-rated countries, is still favourable in terms of the growth outlook," he said.
The world's largest mining company BHP Billiton on Wednesday acknowledged there could be some "bumps in the road" as China, Australia's largest trading partner, moved to a consumer-led economy.
But the mining giant remains confident about China's growth prospects.
Iron ore is Australia's number one export and crucial to budget revenues, but its price has plunged 20 per cent in the past four weeks.
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