Business This article is more than 3 months old‘This is a fight for Mt Isa’: Glencore to close copper mines after 60 years, placing 1,200 jobs at risk
This article is more than 3 months oldCompany says famed Mt Isa Mines assets are no longer viable due to low ore grades and challenging geological conditions
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Glencore will cease operations in Mt Isa at one of the biggest copper mines in the world from 2025.
The multinational company has notified 1,200 workers that after 60 years mining copper in the far northwest Queensland city, underground operations at the Enterprise, X41 and Black Rock mines will close, as well as the copper concentrator.
The mines form part of Glencore’s enormous Mount Isa Mines operation, which was first established in 1924, and also extracts zinc, silver and lead.
“Glencore has conducted a range of studies and reviews seeking to further extend the life of the underground copper mines but unfortunately it has not been possible and they have reached the end of mine life,” the miner said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The studies revealed the remaining mineral resources are not economically viable due to low ore grades and areas where, due to geological conditions, safe extraction can’t be achieved using current technology, this all coupled with ageing infrastructure.”
The company said the Lady Loretta zinc mine, 140km northwest of Mt Isa, will also close in 2025.
The chief operating officer, Sam Strohmayr, said it was disappointing the mine life had reached its end and the company wanted to give affected workers and their families time to prepare.
He said it was too early to determine how many of the 1,200 Mount Isa Mines employees would receive redundancies.
“Redundancies are the last resort and will be offered only when other options have been exhausted,” he said.
The treasurer, Cameron Dick, said the closure of the mine would be “unsettling” for those impacted, but the mine had reached the end of its life.
“We can’t make a mine continue to operate when the mine says it’s no longer economically viable or no longer safe,” he said.
He announced the government would invest $50m towards developing other resource projects in the state’s north west, as well as supporting future job opportunities in the region. Glencore will also spend $20m on the latter, he said.
Dick dismissed as baseless any suggestion that the mine’s closure was due to the state’s progressive coal royalties scheme.
The Australian Workers’ Union called the decision an incredibly sad day for the Mt Isa community.
“This is a fight for Mount Isa, the capital of the northwest minerals province and the epicentre of the next mining boom,” Stacey Schinnerl, the union’s Queensland secretary, said in a statement.
“We will do everything in our power to hold the government and Glencore to account in delivering the support and dignity that the Mount Isa community deserves.”
Robbie Katter, the local state MP, said he understood there were 1,100 local workers employed in the copper business, not including fly-in-fly-out employees.
Mt Isa has an adult population of about 13,000, suggesting 8% of the town could be impacted.
Katter said he did not believe Glencore that the mine had become unviable, pointing to previous advice about the company’s Townsville copper smelter and Ernest Henry Mine, which had its life extended by a new owner.
“The reality is no one wants Glencore here in the North West – we want an owner who is less interested in playing games and more interested in mining the $750 billion worth of untapped critical minerals that exist in the region,” Katter said in a statement.
“If our future out here is so tied to the whims of a fickle global commodity trader, then we need to re-assess the operating conditions that we have created and the value our government has placed on mining to our economy.”
A Glencore spokesperson said Katter’s comments were “disappointing” and the company “remains committed to investing in the region.”
“The reality of mining is that mines have a beginning, middle and end. And after 60 years of operation, Mount Isa’s underground copper operations have now reached that end of mine life.”
Glencore said Mount Isa Mines’ other metals assets including the copper smelter, George Fisher Mine, zinc-lead concentrator, the lead smelter and the copper refinery in Townsville will all continue operating.
Eden Gillespie contributed to this report
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