General News
31 July, 2024
Katter questions whether Black Star project is the real deal
The MP has questioned the timing of the pre-feasibility study for the open cut mine.
Robbie Katter says Glencore only revealed its Black Star open cut mine proposal to placate the political and community backlash from its planned closure of the underground copper mine.
With Mount Isa set to host a state parliamentary inquiry hearing on Tuesday that will examine the KAP’s proposed amendments to the Mount Isa Mines Act, the MP has expressed cynicism towards Glencore’s continued promotion of its open cut proposal at community forums in the city.
Mr Katter said Glencore only discussed Black Star, which is still in its pre-feasibility stage, after he proposed that the mining giant should be forced to open its lease agreement to third party tenders.
“The only positive sentiment about the future of Mount Isa that Glencore has ever offered was when we started making our intentions clear that they should be forced to ‘use it or lose it,” he said.
“We told Glencore there was a growing sentiment that they should be selling the mine lease and then, for the first time ever, all of a sudden, they started saying ‘there is a future in copper in Mount Isa and we will do the Black Star open pit’.
“Everything they were saying at the community information sessions and everything they were saying in the papers beforehand was all about how they only had a little bit of copper left and the community had to get ready for closure.
“The first time we heard them say anything positive was when they think they might be forced to do an environmental clean-up or sell their lease. Glencore’s actions have been entirely predictable, self-serving and only designed to give themselves the best commercial outcome.”
Mr Katter said he hoped the parliamentary inquiry would reveal that Glencore was the “wrong owner of the lease at this point in time”.
“I hope some common sense is going to prevail – I have tried to put some legislation forward to facilitate the continuation of copper operations – if someone else has a better idea, then so be it,” the Traeger MP said.
“In politics everyone can give you a thousand reasons why something shouldn’t happen, but the truth is a company should not be allowed to just sit on a resource in Queensland that is viable if someone else is willing to come in and use and produce from it.”
However, Mr Katter was unable to produce any proof that Glencore’s underground copper mine still had life in it, or that other miners were genuinely interested in buying the asset from Glencore.
Glencore Australia zinc assets chief operating officer Sam Strohmayr will appear before the state parliamentary committee and said while Mr Katter was entitled to his opinion, Glencore had demonstrated a long-term commitment to Mount Isa across multiple projects.
“The work we have put in to determine when operations are going to close, or not, are determined by very experienced engineers, operators, miners and processing people who are all living and working in Mount Isa,” Mr Strohmayr said.
“The reality is that MICO has been operating for a very long time and all mines come to an end of their life –but we absolutely see a continued, long future in Mount Isa. There are amazing resources in Mount Isa.”