Australian Greens on Wednesday released a report which has found 83 percent of Australia 's mining industry is foreign-owned.

The report also showed that in the next five years, 52 billion U.S. dollars in earnings derived from Australian mining investments will go offshore.

Greens leader Bob Brown said the report, based on research commissioned by the party, shows Australians are unaware of the rapid foreign takeover of the resources sector.

"I think Australians simply have been left in the dark about the rapid takeover of ownership offshore of Australia 's minerals," Senator Brown told ABC Radio on Wednesday.

The Greens will use the report's findings to push the case for a super profits tax on miners, including those exempted from the federal government's planned minerals resource rent tax.

Senator Brown wants the new mining tax to apply to gold and uranium, not just coal and iron ore.

However, Ben Mitchell from the Minerals Council of Australia has dismissed the report's findings, saying that millions of Australians owned shares in mining companies that operated locally, while there are also millions of others relied on mining for employment, business and other benefits.

The council argued that over the past 10 years, 98 percent of the cash flow generated from mining has been paid in taxes, royalties or reinvested.