20 Minerals Council of Australia Chart 2 Direct and indirect uranium employment Employment 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0 Source Authors calculations 200708 200809 200607 201112 200910 201011 201213 201314 Uranium employment Uranium economy The AB S input output tables provide inter industry fows allowing examination of the inter relationships between nonferrous metals uranium and the rest of the Australian economy 19 It also enables benchmarking against coal the main energy commodity This analysis begins by considering the question If an industry were to increase its production by the value of 100 what would be required from the nonferrous metal sector The top 10 industries are shown in table 7 In the left panel the top 10 industries for nonferrous metals are shown The same information for the coal industry is presented in the right hand side panel The amounts indicate the dollar amount required for a 100 increase in the particular sector Commonalities include that both industries exhibit a high degree of internal supply activity as indicated by the 5 th and 3 rd rank of self interaction for nonferrous metals NFM and coal respectively Other similarities include industry dependences on iron and steel manufacturing as well as iron ore mining More interesting are the contrasts That is if uranium was to be truly recognised as an energy good how might it reshape the economy Not surprisingly it has the potential to become a major source of electricity This is an important point as uranium represents a low emissions fuel with a relatively small environmental footprint Attention turns now to the question If the uranium industry were to increase its production by the value of 100 what would be required from the rest of the economy The top 10 industries are shown in table 8 Again there are interactions with itself for both industries considered T able 8 shows that if the uranium sector were to expand it would provide substantial stimulus to other sectors in the economy Scope