The shutdown of operations at BHP’s nickel smelter in Kalgoorlie this week is another example of the global twists and turns buffeting Western Australia’s mining industry.

A volatile market was clearly primed to celebrate good economic news, in part as a respite from the increasing degree of bad news in geopolitics. Mere speculation about the size of an expected new fiscal stimulus package from China had lifted sentiment and boosted an iron ore price that has spent much of this year in decline as the Chinese economy faltered.