Many books on interest groups study how they conduct themselves in politics, and rather take for granted their existence. Unusually, this book examines the reasons why, for many years, there was no global level group representing the mining and non-ferrous metals industry and how the sector found a basis for association at the turn of the millennium, in response to the globalisation of environmental policy and the emerging focus on sustainable development. The associated reconfiguration of compétences at the national and state levels in Australia is also shown to have had important consequences for sector associability at those levels. In short, it examines the changing associability of a business sector at what Theodore Lowi described as three levels of governance: macro, meso and micro. The book draws on interviews with key participants and extensive archival research.