General News
14 August, 2024
Council chasing $30 million in funding from state government
Mayor Peta MacRae says a stop-gap fix is needed to help the struggling city.
Mount Isa City Council wants a $30 million package from the state government to parachute up to 100 miners directly into council employment as part of its efforts to find local positions for Glencore workers following next year’s closure of underground operations.
Mayor Peta MacRae told North West Weekly that the proposed funding would enable the council to provide employment options for exiting Glencore workers in small scale and short-term works such as local asset repairs and maintenance, city and parks beautification and project management.
She said these stop-gap measures would provide up to 12 months employment for former copper miners that aimed to keep them in the city while the council worked with government and businesses to fast-track more ambitious ventures that would focus on long-term local employment.
The council is in the final stages of formulating its strategic vision to navigate the city through the difficult period between the closure of Mount Isa Copper Operations in July 2025 and the opening of a series of major projects, potentially from the end of 2026 onwards.
Included among the major projects awaiting confirmation is Glencore’s Black Star open cut mine, with the company expected to make a final investment decision next year and says could eventually require up to 400 workers.
The Eva Copper Mine, north of Cloncurry, is another looming project that has received a swag of money from the state government in recent weeks to fast track its construction, with the company expected to make an investment decision by January 2025, despite expressed misgivings over its available power supply.
North West Phosphate will also significantly increase its construction activities next year at the long-discussed Paradise South mine, north of Mount Isa, which will require about 492 workers.
The council has been included in discussions with Glencore and Powerlink about providing opportunities for more than 300 MICO workers to transition to construction jobs on the CopperString project, with positions potentially being available at work camps in Hughenden, Richmond and Julia Creek, which could eventually be moved to Mount Isa once local works begin.
Cr MacRae said the council had spent the past seven months working on its broader transition strategy, which will include 60 projects that focus on building mining adjacent employment – using the skills that workers have gained in the resource sector to transition into related areas, such as mineral processing.
The transition strategy document is set to be released following its formal adoption by councillors.
Mount Isa City Council CEO Tim Rose said the document focused on long-term economic diversification.
“We can’t escape the fact that we will lose people from the city when the underground mines close, but we want to try to focus on building a better future for Mount Isa that has a broader range of jobs and economic activities available,” he said.
Cr MacRae said the strategy would provide avenues to reduce the reliance on a single mining company to underpin the city’s prosperity.
“Mount Isa’s past, present and future is mining. But we also have to look at diversifying to provide value adding technologies to the resource sector rather than simply digging it up and sending it to the port,” Cr MacRae said.
“We are attempting to put out as many opportunities to keep skilled workers in the city in the available time we have got.”
Cr MacRae repeated calls for the state government to increase its contribution to the Mount Isa economy by ending its reliance on a fly-in fly-out public servant workforce.