Asbestos training and asbestos training courses help you understand the history of asbestos in Australia. Asbestos is the name applied to six naturally occurring minerals that are mined from the earth. The different types of asbestos are:
Commonly used in Australia
Serpentine
Chrysotile
Amphibole
Amosite
Crocidolite
Not commonly used in Australia
Tremolite
Actinolite
Anthophyllite
Asbestos training outlines how in Australia, mostly chrysotile asbestos was mined until 1939. The Asbestos Training courses also show that with the commencement of mining at Wittenoom in Western Australia in 1937, crocidolite dominated production until the final closure of this mine in 1966. New South Wales, the first State to mine asbestos, produced the largest tonnages of chrysotile (until 1983), as well as smaller quantities of amphibole (until 1949).
Australian asbestos production and exports declined after the closure of the Wittenoom mine, and imports of chrysotile also started to decline. Consumption peaked in about 1975, at 70,000 tonnes/year.
Australia also imported many manufactured asbestos products, including asbestos cement articles, asbestos yarn, cord and fabric, asbestos joint and millboard, asbestos friction materials and gaskets. The main sources of these products were the United Kingdom, the USA, the Federal Republic of Germany and Japan.
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