General News
21 August, 2024
New projects needed to help city survive a downturn: mayor
Peta MacRae says Mount Isa needs to be more than just a mining city.
Attracting government support and private investment to diversify the Mount Isa economy will require the city to look beyond its traditional role as a mining community and increase its focus on developing local projects with a net zero emission pathway, says Mayor Peta MacRae.
Speaking at the first Mount Isa Local Workforce Forum at the Civic Centre, Cr MacRae said the need to reduce the city’s reliance on a single mining company had been recognised at least four months prior to the Glencore closure announcement in the council’s five-year economic development strategy, titled Mount Isa, Moving Ahead.
She said the report, which was released in June 2023, recognised Mount Isa’s existing skilled workforce as well as its location to the burgeoning North West minerals province and regional importance as a mining hub as major competitive advantages for the city.
However, she said the report also recognised “in a foreboding way” the need to broaden the scope of available local business opportunities outside of mining.
Cr MacRae said the diversification approach detailed in this plan had to be overhauled and “put on steroids” after Glencore announced in October 2023 that the city would have to prepare for the closure of underground copper operations within 18 months.
She said the council was forced to quickly engage a series of experts within weeks of the Glencore announcement to outline available pathways to buffer against economic fallout from the closure.
“We needed to take control of our own destiny and shape local job creation in response to the event,” Cr MacRae told the forum.
“The process of creating jobs and attracting investment is a long one, however we had less than 18 months to soften the blow.”
She said these experts focussed on opportunities within six economic sectors – agriculture, energy, resources, critical infrastructure, tourism, and small and medium businesses.
The synthesis of these six pillars forms the basis of the council’s transition strategy, which will outline a range of projects to diversify the local economy and provide employment opportunities for exiting copper miners.
As previously reported by North West Weekly, these projects focus on “mining adjacent” employment – using transferrable skills from the resource sector into non-mining projects.
Mount Isa councillors are expected to formally adopt the long-awaited transition strategy at its council meeting next week.
Cr MacRae told the Civic Centre forum that while mining would remain a key component of the city’s economy, the transition strategy has identified the need to attract new investment through pursuing a “net zero pathway”.
“We know that Mount Isa will continue to be Australia’s premier mining city, with a strong supply chain of heavy industrial and mineral processing expertise,” she said.
“But... our future lies in a range of jobs – from the digital economy, arts, and STEM, as well as mining.
“We also recognised that any significant new investment needed to have a net zero pathway, as all new capital investment from the market has to be attached to a net zero emissions path to be attractive.”
It is understood that possible “net zero” projects under consideration include wind energy projects to complement the CopperString rollout and working with Glencore to transform shafts at the disused MICO site to produce and store renewable power.
“This work is now being finalised and will become part of our planning for how our city markets itself and attracts the right kind of investment,” Cr MacRae said.
“It has been 11 months since the (Glencore closure) announcement and 11 months until the mine is scheduled to close – council’s work in this period has created greater clarity on our economic strengths and opportunities and galvanised our resolve on how we need to position and advocate for our city.”
The state government initiated Local Workforce Forum saw more than 50 stakeholders across government, business and emergency and social services gather in Mount Isa to give input into the Regional Job Committee’s (RJC) action plan, which aims to provide a roadmap to address workforce challenges while promoting local economic development.
RJC project manager Natasha Storey said the need to counteract population decline as a result of the Glencore closures was identified as a major issue concerning stakeholders at the forum.
The next workshop will be held in September and a final report is due to be published by the RJC in December.