The Townsville Enterprise Mining and Critical Minerals Forum has been told the maintenance of the Mount Isa copper smelter and development of other substantial infrastructure was an issue of national sovereignty.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute director – national security programs John Coyne told the conference that a user-pays infrastructure model was undermining the development of the North.

The Mount Isa copper smelter, under a funding review by Glencore, and the emergent Copperstring 2.0, which is facing cost blowouts, were cases in point.

Main image: Workers re-bricking the Mount Isa copper smelter stack in 2022.

Dr Coyne said the ’80s catch cry of privatisation, user-pays and ‘just in time’ infrastructure development was redundant in remote areas.

The sentiment was backed by consultant mining engineer Sally Henderson from Redefining Resources who said tier three miners, otherwise known as the junior sector, had much to contribute not only to industry but to community development.

Dr Coyne said markets were being manipulated or coerced as a result of global competition, citing the Indonesian nickel oversupply which caused a market crash.

This created uncertainty which undermined investment confidence that would be quelled with the government underwriting of infrastructure assets that were considered ‘nation building’, he said.

Letting assets like the smelter close risked the loss of a scalable industry base which would affect national security, Dr Coyne told the conference.

“That does not happen by accident. It needs deliberate planning effort and as a result of that, the message that I’d like to implore upon all levels of government here, which is not just the loss of 17,000 jobs or 12,000 jobs if the smelter in Mount Isa closes, it is loss of a scalable industry base that will have ripple effects for decades becoming Northern Australia.

“(The closure) will fundamentally undermine Northern Australia being an economically and socially prosperous location. It will affect national security. 

“Defence does not have the money to underwrite all the facilities in infrastructure of needs in Northern Australia.” 

Meanwhile, new tier one player in North-West Queensland Harmony Eva Copper, the child of South African company Harmony Gold, said copper’s status needed to be re-evaluated by the Federal Government. 

Harmony is developing the Eva deposit north of Cloncurry.

Director of external affairs and international relations Glen Connell represented the company at this morning’s conference.

He described the projected demand of copper as being as much in the next 30 years as has been consumed to date.

Copper was considered ‘critical’ by the State Government, giving projects and operations priority planning status. 

The Federal Government, on the other hand, classified copper as ‘strategic’ which implied lesser priority, Mr Connell said.