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Miners in Australia’s Canning Basin and farmers in California’s Central Valley are tapping groundwater resources at unsustainable rates.

The difference, the studies found, is likely attributable to heavy gold and iron ore mining and oil and gas exploration near the Canning Basin.

In Australia, for example, the Canning Basin in the country’s western end had the third-highest rate of depletion in the world.

But the economics so far make it a risky bet: unlike the shale driving America’s gas revolution, much of Australia’s shale is trapped under remote deserts, such as the Canning Basin in Western Australia, making recovery costs huge.

Buru Energy, an emerging oil and shale gas play with assets in the Canning Basin in Western Australia, could be eyed by North West Shelf joint venture partners Woodside Petroleum, BHP Billiton, BP Plc, Shell and Chevron.