Mount Isa mayor Danielle Slade announces strategy to protect local Glencore workers

A North Queensland city will do whatever it can to keep more than 1000 local families at risk of a local mining downturn. This is what it has planned.

The central business district of Mount Isa, which sits right next to the mine site. Mount Isa celebrates 100 years since prospector John Campbell Miles discovered lead in the area, leading to the foundation of the town. Picture: Chris Burns.

A North Queensland mining city will do whatever it can to keep more than 1000 local families that could be affected by a local downturn, with its local council looking at other industries to develop.

Mount Isa City Council announced it would employ consultants to identify how it will respond to Glencore’s closure of its copper mines in the city within two years.

Currently 17 per cent of Mount Isa’s employment is in the copper ore mining sector, while nine per cent work in silver, lead and zinc.

The next significant sectors are hospital workers, at 5.5 per cent, primary education at 3.6 per cent, and supermarkets at 2.3 per cent.

Some of the ways the council wanted to increase other employment opportunities was by seeking the acceleration of CopperString’s construction, create a Transport and Logistics Centre which could develop a base for transport operations, and establish a common-user facility for critical minerals.

This would adapt Glencore’s existing large concentration facility so that it could process vanadium, cobalt, and low-volume copper.

Mount Isa mayor Danielle Slade speaking at a North West local council forum in Cloncurry. Photographer: Liam Kidston.

The council announced a two stage strategy to carry out the investigation of six economic areas that could be useful to Mount Isa, which were tourism, energy, resources, critical infrastructure, and small and medium sized businesses.

Within the next four months the consultants would consider ideas and would work with a taskforce that focused on the closure of Mount Isa Mines’s copper mines.

After May the consultants would look at identifying essential projects to determine prospects of investing, and this stage is expected to take a year to complete.

Mount Isa Mayor Danielle Slade speaks at a forum held following Glencore’s announcement in last October that it would phase out its copper mines in the city in two years. She said her priority would be to protect as many jobs and families as she can following Glencore's decision to stop its underground copper mining in two years. Picture: Chris Burns.

Mount Isa mayor Danielle Slade said an advisory committee made up of local and state government representatives, and Glencore had met twice last month to determine the directions it would take to transition the city’s economy, as well as determining who the consultants would be.

Mott MacDonald would investigate energy, DeltaPearl Partners would examine resources, KPMG would examine critical infrastructure, Scyne Advisory would examine agriculture, and Bonwick Consulting would examine small and medium businesses.

A contract for TRC Tourism was yet to be confirmed and would depend on if the council was able to secure state government funding.

The council had budgeted for the costs of consultants but would still be applying for additional funding.

“Mount Isa possesses tremendous potential, but it is crucial, at this point, to prioritise securing employment opportunities for all copper mine workers and their families who

choose to stay in Mount Isa,” Cr Slade said.

“Although we will endeavour to secure State and Federal funding, it is imperative that we engage consultants experienced in assisting communities who have faced similar

circumstances, such as those affected by the closure of the car industry.”

Deputy mayor Phil Barwick said that the short-term sustainability of Mount Isa’s economy was vital, but that it was also important to plan for how it would be able to transition to mandated net zero emissions targets.

“What it will mean for Council is that there is a lot of hard work ahead to come out of this, however I am very optimistic that our structured planning now will also encourage growth for the city and the broader region in the medium term,” he said.

Originally published as Mount Isa mayor Danielle Slade announces strategy to protect local Glencore workers