Mount Isa: Mixed reactions amid news of copper mining shutdown

When Glencore announced the shuttering of its copper mining operations in Mount Isa by 2025, there was shock in the town, but long-term residents say the city will survive. But the local MP has a delivered a blunt message to the miner, writes Michael Madigan

Glencore has announced significant changes to its copper mining operations in Mount Isa. Picture: Glencore

• Opinion: City won’t be beaten

It has thrived in the booms yet always survived the busts, and there’s no reason to believe Mount Isa, which began life exactly a century ago when prospector John Campbell stumbled across possibly the richest zinc-lead seams on the planet, won’t endure this latest challenge.

The news this week that Glencore will close all copper mining operations at Mount Isa by 2025 was not exactly news in the mining town 900km west of Townsville. They have known this was coming for years.

“But it’s a bit like a death in the family,’’ says Father Mick Lowcock,’ the Catholic priest famous across the northwest for ministering to a flock far beyond his Catholic constituency.

“It’s expected but it’s always a shock when it happens.’’

Father Mick Lowcock has lived and worked in Mount Isa for almost 30 years. Picture: J Duffus Photography

Real estate agent John Tully, owner of City & Country Realty, is not yet rattled by the expected job loss, even if it is expected to impact up to 1200 jobs.

“You could fly 2000 people into Mount Isa tomorrow and they would all have a job immediately,’’ Tully says, referring to the labour shortage affecting communities across the state. “You have to remember; it is only the copper part of the mine they are closing. And there is plenty of mineral wealth in this area to keep the town going for decades to come.’’

Tully is referring to the North West Minerals Province, the “capital city’’ of which is Mount Isa.

This province is one of the richest in the world, with more than half a trillion dollars worth of lead, zinc and silver phosphate deposits as well as demonstrated potential for rare earths which could fuel the renewable energy revolution.

And it will soon be fed cheap electricity through the CopperString 2032 project – a high-voltage electricity transmission line from Townsville to Mount Isa connecting the entire region to the national electricity grid.

To Tully, who watched the panic spread through the town in 2009 and 2014 as mining downtowns threatened hundreds of jobs, the latest announcement is still more a perception than a reality.

‘It’s a hypothetical – like, let the wave get to the beach before you decide whether it’s going to drown everyone or just be a normal wave.’’

Real estate agent John Tully in Mount Isa. Picture: J Duffus Photography

He sees the worst-case scenario as being a panic where miners quit their jobs before the axe falls, head to Townsville or Cairns and end up sleeping in caravans and cars as more victims of the housing crisis.

Local State MP Robbie Katter is blunt in his assessment of Glencore, which he says has never really been serious about mining.

“I’m confident of my position on this – I have had close relationships with people closely integrated with the business for over 20 years and I know what has been occurring,’’ Katter says.

“They are getting to the edge of the resource, that is for sure, and it is getting trickier to mine the copper. But this would not be a story, this would not be happening if another miner was mining that copper in Mount Isa.’’

To illustrate his point Katter points to the sale by Glencore of the nearby Ernest Henry Mine to Evolution Mining, a deal finalised at the beginning of 2022.

“Glencore thought there was not much future in the mine – Evolution found more gold and copper reserves and extended the life of the same mine by 17 years.’’

Katter, who has been in a series of meetings with government officials since the news broke on Wednesday, said the state government appeared too eager to smooth over the social repercussions of the expected job loss with a compensation package rather than take steps to ensure a more proactive miner owner could get a foothold in Mount Isa.

Mount Isa Mines, founded as a company in 1924, paid its first dividend in 1947 and became something of a Queensland institution in the post war years. Thousands of working-class Queensland families with little experience in investing were still willing to put a few pounds or dollars into MIM, and ended up making handsome profits.

Almost everyone knew an uncle or cousin or family friend who had gone out to “The Isa’’ and accumulated a small fortune by saving some of the extraordinary wages on offer.

Robbie Katter has taken a shot at miner Glencore over its decision. Picture: Liam Kidston

MIM was also an early example of a good corporate citizen, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the community over the decades, right down to expensive Christmas presents annually presented to the children of miners.

Father Lowcock, with a half-century experience of the region, says the town of around 19,000 people is, in some respects, like a teenager still struggling to find a way into adulthood.

‘Right up into the 1990s it was the mine which would do everything for the town,’’ he said. “Then things changed, and the council started having to do everything. There are still people who will ask, ‘why is the mine not doing this or doing that?’ ’’

For Glencore’s part, the company says it has conducted a range of studies and reviews which sought 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 company said in a statement.

“Our focus over the coming months will be to work closely with our people and contractors, our suppliers, and the Mount Isa community to provide support as we move towards closure of these assets.’’

Originally published as Mount Isa: Mixed reactions amid news of copper mining shutdown