CANBERRA/MELBOURNE - Australia declared the top of the resources boom, which had cushioned the country against the global financial crisis, a day after the world's biggest miner BHP Billiton shelved two major expansion plans worth at least US$40 billion.

One minister went as far as calling the end of the resources boom, but later rowed back to say commodity prices had peaked while investments in multi-billion dollar projects would continue, especially in the energy sector.

" This construction boom will continue, but the days of record commodity prices are gone," Resources and Energy minister Martin Ferguson told reporters on Thursday.

" We've done well - A$270 billion (US$282 billion) in investment, the envy of the world. It has got tougher in the last six to twelve months," he said earlier on Australian radio.

His comments came after BHP scrapped plans for a US$20 billion-plus expansion of its Olympic Dam copper mine in South Australia and a new harbour, estimated at more than US$20 billion, to nearly double its iron ore exports in Western Australia.

Fuelled by Chinese-led demand for its coal, iron ore and other resources, Australia's economy was one of the very few in the developed world to sail through the global financial crisis without sliding into recession.

But with China heading for the slowest pace of annual growth in more than a decade, investors are nervous about the near-term outlook for miners.

The resources boom has fuelled what has been dubbed a two-speed economy, which has pumped up the local dollar and exacerbated the pain felt in manufacturing and retail in Australia's most populous states.

While manufacturers, like Ford and Bluescope Steel, have cut production and axed jobs, unemployment has stayed at around 5 per cent, thanks to jobs growth in resources projects, where truck drivers command six-figure pay packets.

Olympic Dam alone would have created 25,000 jobs, South Australia's government said.

Politicians may be worried the whole economy is moving into the slow lane, but analysts say the fear is premature, as energy projects will continue full steam ahead.

National Australia Bank does not see the boom peaking until 2013 and 2014, when resource capital spending will be around 1 per cent of gross domestic product higher than now.

Finance Minister Penny Wong also played down fears of a collapse in the mining boom, saying the government has factored in a peaking in Australia's terms of trade, which measures the difference between export earnings and import costs.

" We've still got a long way to run when it comes to this investment boom," Ms Wong told Australian radio.

" We've got over half a trillion dollars of investment, and over half of that...is at the advanced stage. So I think the 'doom and gloom' that some are putting about isn't appropriate."

Mr Ferguson's warnings on the mining boom may also be a response to opposition attacks blaming a new carbon tax for BHP's woes. Well behind in the polls, the government is trying to claw back voter support ahead of an election due next year.

Seven out of eight of the 10 biggest resources projects under construction will produce LNG, ranging in scale from US$5 billion to US$43 billion, according to Deloitte Access Economics.

BHP put the Olympic Dam expansion on hold as it reported a 35 per cent slide in second-half profit, the biggest sign of the pain inflicted by China's slowdown.

Weaker demand from China has knocked prices of all key commodities, including iron ore, languishing at its lowest levels since December 2009, copper, coal and aluminium.

BHP and companies that work with the miners, such as rail transporter QR National, say while they are cautious on the near-term outlook, they expect demand growth in China and India to underpin growth in the medium to long term. -- REUTERS