The resources boom is entering a new export phase that will deliver "serious money", Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane says.
While there had been a slowdown in construction projects, the production of coal, iron ore, gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG)and base metals was ramping up.
The Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE) forecasts export earnings for mineral and energy commodities to increase by more than 60 per cent over the next five years to around $290 billion a year.
"That is serious money," Mr Macfarlane told the 2013 Annual National Conference on Resources and Energy in Canberra on Thursday.
Much of the new growth will come from the LNG sector, with exports expected to increase by 360 per cent to around $65 billion.
"Australia will shortly become the second largest - or optimistically, the largest exporter - of LNG and that is nothing short of amazing," Mr Macfarlane said.
Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Mitch Hooke said BREE's latest projections also underscore the coal sector's ongoing value to the economy.
BREE expects metallurgical coal exports will grow by an average annual rate of 3.2 per cent to reach $35 billion in 2017/18, while thermal coal exports are predicted to rise by an annual rate of 6.3 per cent to exceed $24 billion.
"These results will be achieved off the back of continued growing demand from emerging economies, including China," Mr Hooke said in a statement.
The federal coalition government wants Australia to be an "energy super power" and will be working on a white paper toward this end over the next 12 months.
The minister plans to visit Japan, China, South Korea and Thailand in his first official overseas trip before parliament resumes later this year.
Mr Macfarlane nominated coal seam gas (CSG) mining in NSW as one of his major challenges as industry minister.
Farming communities are opposing activity near agricultural lands due to concerns about water and soil contamination.
Mr Macfarlane was confident the issue could be resolved in a way that would make farmers part of the solution.
Science and fact must be to the fore when assessing projects, "not emotion and rhetoric".
Some people had legitimate concerns and were entitled to legally protest.
"I'm fine with all of that ... it keeps every one focused on the issues," Mr Macfarlane said.
But he did have a problem with protesters who broke the law and used unscientific scare tactics to stop economic development.
"I class them as anarchists," he said.
Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox was unimpressed with the NSW government's proposed exclusion zones on CSG, labelled the "toughest CSG controls in Australia", by extending the two-kilometre exclusion zone around residential areas.
"It is unfortunate that the NSW government has decided to proceed with the most restrictive elements of its revamp of coal seam gas regulation regardless of the looming and intense gas supply issues facing NSW," he said in a statement.
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