Mount Isa City Council has used a visit by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to push for federal backing to expedite job-creating projects as the closure date looms for Glencore’s local copper mining operations.
Chief executive officer Tim Rose said the council had strong proposals to help transition the economy after that mid-year closure, which is expected to take about 1200 jobs.
They include Green Gravity’s energy storage proposal, a potential pyrite tailings reprocessing operation to produce sulphuric acid, and development of an airbase for aeronautic company Flying Whales’ 200m-long rigid airships.
“We do need the Federal Government to play a part in expediting all of them,” Mr Rose said.
Image at top of page: Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Minister Catherine King and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (centre) in discussion with Cr John Tully, Deputy Mayor Kim Coghlan and council chief executive officer Tim Rose.
Glencore announced plans in October 2023 to close its Mount Isa Mines underground copper operations and copper concentrator in the second half of 2025.
Related: Cobalt Blue in MOU to tackle North West’s acid issue
Mr Rose said the only project the council was working on that may be able to be brought on quickly enough to help alleviate the expected hit to local employment from July was Green Gravity’s proposal to use local mineshafts to deploy its gravitational energy storage technology.
“We can potentially bring that forward … and it’s not going to be the amount of jobs that we’ve currently got in the mine, but it’s a couple of hundred jobs that could potentially dovetail into that or accelerate and get closer (to the Glencore copper closure date),” he said.
“That stems the bleeding a little bit. But a lot of the other projects have to go through planning regulations and a whole range of other things.”
Related: Mount Isa signs up to advance Green Gravity energy vision
Mr Rose said the council was resigned to the fact it would lose people from the city before a range of initiatives could take effect.
“The problem was, I mean, whilst 18 months sounds like a long timeframe, it’s not; it’s very short in terms of trying to turn a regional economy around.”
A major concern is that the loss of population as Glencore jobs plummet will leave the Outback hub unable to support the range of services it now offers.
“We explained that to (Mr Albanese) and he is aware of it,” Mr Rose said. “We’re a service hub for Doomadgee and Mornington Island and all the other towns around here, Burke, et cetera, for medical services. We’re the major hub for all of those towns for healthcare and law enforcement and all sorts of stuff.”
Mr Rose said Mr Albanese had pointed to some key funding areas that the council should seek to tap very quickly.
Mr Albanese was also questioned at a press conference in Mount Isa today on what his government would do to support Mount Isa in the wake of the Glencore withdrawal.
“One of the things that we’re doing is making sure that we back the critical minerals industry, rare earths and other opportunities that are here in the region,” Mr Albanese said.
He said that $50 million had been made available from the Queensland Government for the transition.
“We want to make sure that workers are looked after as well. We’ll continue to work with the company, but also with the other levels of government to make sure that people aren’t left behind,” Mr Albanese said.
“But we understand that this is a very difficult decision which will impact the community here. And for many of the workers who’ve worked on site.
“I’ve been to that facility on at least three occasions as a minister and as a member of parliament, along with (KAP Federal Member for Kennedy) Bob Katter, and Bob has certainly made strong representations as well about it. And we will continue to work with the community.”
Mr Katter said the Prime Minister needed to intervene on Glencore’s copper mine closure and kick-start Copperstring to get the region producing minerals as soon as possible.
“The most important thing that the Prime Minister can do for Australia is to increase mineral exports out of North and North-West Queensland,” Mr Katter said.
“Mining is not easy. We pay the highest electricity costs in the world, and if we want to stop mine closures, then we need to deliver CopperString as fast as humanly possible.
“He needs to tell Glencore, ‘You’ve got to mine as much copper as you can, and if you can’t, then get out of town and let someone else in to do it.’ If we were in the United States, this would never happen. There is a snowflake’s chance in hell they’d let some foreign company control the boom gates to a major commodity, which is exactly what Glencore is doing in Mount Isa.”
You may also like:
.
