Australia’s minerals industry is booming.

But Dan Denning in The Daily Reckoning Australia sees two threats on the horizon that could derail Australia’s commodities boom. One possibility is that Australia’s boom will end where America’s depression begins. The other, more likely, scenario is an inflationary melt up.

The extent of the boom was underlined yesterday by an Australian government report predicting export earnings from commodities would rise a whopping 40% $201bn in the financial year to June 2009, led by a 48% surge in mineral exports to A$178bn — the biggest rise in four decades.

There are a lot of things we don’t know about the global economy. How high will the oil price go? How many billions more will be lost in the U.S. housing bust? Will the Reserve Bank Raise interest rates again?

Oil is the energy resource that captures public attention, but its poor cousin natural gas could be the one now offering more interesting investment opportunities.

Now, here’s something a little different. The high oil price is driving up the price of shares mineral sands companies.

The price action in the Aussie share market is starting to look like a pinball game.