General News
25 November, 2025
Mayor calls for greater investment from Harmony
Greg Campbell is pleased with the commitment to create a new copper mine, but is concerned about the benefit to the community.
Cloncurry Shire mayor Greg Campbell is demanding firm commitments from South African mining company Harmony after its board finally approved its $2.3 billion Eva Copper Project, with the council warning that the landmark investment still leaves major questions unanswered about the long-term benefits for the community.
Queensland Treasurer and Energy Minister David Janetzki and Minister for Natural Resources and Mines Dale Last will fly into Mount Isa to make the official announcement, although Cr Campbell questioned why it was not being held in Cloncurry.
"It's a very odd decision, I think. Pretty tone deaf," the mayor told North West Weekly this morning.
"I'm not sure who is attending (in Mount Isa). The Treasurer's coming to Cloncurry later today. I'll be in Brisbane at the Queensland Resource Council's lunch tomorrow (Wednesday) to remind people that the Eva project is in the Cloncurry Shire, not in Mount Isa."
Harmony’s announcement has been celebrated by the state government and industry groups, which describe the project as a new pillar of North West Queensland’s copper future.
But inside the Cloncurry Shire boundary, where the mine will be built about 72km north of the Cloncurry township, Cr Campbell says the excitement is tempered by a lack of concrete commitments on housing, workforce, infrastructure and community investment.
“I think generally, for the state looking at the bigger picture, you could probably say it’s great news,” Cr Campbell said.
“The question I’ve got is, what is Cloncurry going to get out of it?”
He said the project’s true scale only became clear once it was confirmed Harmony’s earlier cost estimates were in US dollars.
“We’re looking at $2.3, $2.4 billion Australian dollars they’re going to spend on this project,” he said.
“I haven’t seen anything to date that Harmony’s committed to actually improving the community that’s going to be left with a great big hole in the ground.”
Cr Campbell said the early public narrative around the project had overwhelmingly focused on Mount Isa, even though most of the operational footprint sits within the Cloncurry Shire.
He said Harmony’s engagement had contributed to this perception.
“The company has probably done a very good sleight of hand job at making us believe that Cloncurry was going to get actual job opportunities and community growth,” he said.
“Today, again, having seen nothing in writing, I think that’s all been good spin.”
The mayor said Mount Isa’s mining presence often overshadows where the copper actually comes from.
“Mount Isa has the more visible mining presence, but without the mine where the copper comes from, none of that downstream industry happens. The bulk of that, and the bulk of that for the future, is in the Cloncurry Shire.”
One of the biggest issues for Cloncurry is Harmony’s reluctance to commit to a residential workforce.
Cr Campbell has written to the company seeking guarantees that a portion of the 450 to 500 permanent operational roles will be based in town and supported by new housing.
“If you’re having 450, 500 operational jobs for the next 15-odd years, to me it shouldn’t be hard to commit to at least 20 or 30 of them straight up being based in Cloncurry,” he said.
“FIFO doesn’t grow our communities. FIFO won’t help Mount Isa either, and all it does is continue to grow Brisbane.”
Cr Campbell said the announcement also sharpened the community’s long-running push for a new hospital in Cloncurry, a project he believes should be on the table when government and industry are celebrating major new investments.
“Do we get a new hospital? I think this announcement crystallises the questions rather than provide any answers or certainty,” he said.
The mayor said the scale of the Eva project made it reasonable for the community to expect meaningful social infrastructure, not just jobs and production figures.
He also claimed Harmony had argued that Cloncurry was unsuitable for families, a position he rejected.
“One of the responses from the mining company is, why would they expect their staff to live in Cloncurry if they've got to send their kids to boarding school?” he said.
“If they don't like our town, don't come. Dig your hole somewhere else.”
The project’s independent power system has also caused concern, with Harmony opting for its own solar, battery and diesel setup.
Cr Campbell said Harmony's choice disconnected the mine from the broader North West power grid and undermined momentum for CopperString.
“There’s no mention of connection to the current North West grid … they’re being totally isolated,” he said.
“They’re not contributing to the energy infrastructure of the broader North West.”
With the state government last month setting aside $200 million for bespoke power solutions in its Energy Roadmap – funding widely expected to support Harmony – Cr Campbell said unanswered questions now hang over the future of the long-promised transmission line.
He also suggested the company may have strategically used uncertainty around power access during its negotiations with the government.
“Have they just been playing the game with the state and threatening that it wouldn’t go ahead… until they got as good a deal as they could?”
Harmony has also sourced its own groundwater rather than connecting to existing water infrastructure, a move Cr Campbell said again sidesteps regional investment.
“When a $2.3 billion project isn’t contributing to the greater good of the infrastructure in the North West, and we’re not seeing them invest in the community in which they are operating … what’s the point of it? Are we just making South African shareholders richer?
“Brisbane gets a lovely corporate head office of a global mining company, and probably the bulk of the FIFO workers. Is that a fair question? What do we actually get out of it?”
Despite the lack of clarity, the project remains significant for the Cloncurry Shire.
“This will be the biggest single investment in the shire probably ever,” Cr Campbell said, noting that Dugald River was a $1.2 billion development and Ernest Henry’s long-term investment surpassed that.
He said rates revenue from the mine would increase substantially once operations begin.
“On average, a big operating mine pays in excess of $1 million a year,” he said.
During construction, contractors will also count as part of the shire’s full-time equivalent workforce for rating purposes.
“There’s a formula that calculates the full-time equivalents and that’s what we base our rates on," the mayor confirmed.
Cr Campbell stressed that Cloncurry Shire Council had consistently pushed for local jobs, residential workforce commitments and community investment since the earliest stages of the project.
“We’ve been saying this from day one to them,” he said.
“They’ve been saying, trust us, let’s get it over the line and we’ll commit. But they’ve committed and I haven’t seen anything.”
With national attention now focused on the project, Cr Campbell said now was the critical moment for accountability.