General News
31 July, 2024
Open cut decision due next year: Glencore
A final investment decision on the Black Star open cut mine extension project is on the cards for 2025.
Glencore Australia zinc assets chief operating officer Sam Strohmayr says a final investment decision on the Black Star open cut mine extension project is likely sometime next year as the company looks to avoid a “brain drain” of skilled labour in the city by retaining workers with transferrable skills.
Speaking at a Mount Isa Mines community information session last week, Mr Strohmayr said the Black Star project could commence in late 2026 or early 2027 – leaving a minimum of 18 months between the scheduled July 2025 Mount Isa Copper Operations (MICO) closure and the potential opening of Black Star.
Mr Strohmayr said Glencore was currently exploring options to retain MICO workers who would be required for the Black Star project, which is expected to employ about 350-400 people and have an operational life of about 20 years.
“I definitely see a pathway for a lot of people to transition to the Black Star open cut,” Mr Strohmayr told North West Weekly.
“It would be ideal if you had one operation coming to its natural close and another one starting up straight away – but we have to be mindful of this little gap (in time).
“There will be a number of steps that we will go through to try to minimise that brain drain – for example, is there any way we can bring people on earlier so we can keep them in the business while we transition.
“There are absolutely transferrable skills, particularly in the trades – a fitter or a diesel mechanic or an electrician – all those skills are transferrable whether you are working on underground equipment or open cut equipment.
“Even driving trucks underground compared to driving trucks above ground – these are absolutely transferable skills.”
Mr Strohmayr told the community forum that 671 of the 1200 MICO workers had provided details to Glencore regarding their employment intentions ahead of the underground copper mining closures next year.
He said 427 workers had sought redeployment within Glencore operations, with 188 people not seeking redeployment and 56 stating no preference.
Mr Strohmayr said he expected more workers to come forward and share their preferences as the closure deadline approached.
“There will be some workers happy to go along and just wait and see what happens – and I suspect that’s what we are seeing. There are some other people who are towards the end of their careers and are quite happy to see their time out at MICO and perhaps they will take a redundancy,” he said.
“But I expect to see an increase in the number of people making their intentions known in the coming months. We are encouraging people to put forward their preference because it helps our planning processes and helps us be very targeted in who we are talking to regarding future opportunities with our ongoing operations.
“We are pleased we have a number of people indicate they want to continue on with the company.”
Mr Strohmayr said 38 MICO workers had already transferred within Glencore and a further 37 transfers were expected to be finalised by the end of August.
He said to-date there had been five redundancies.
Glencore revealed at the forum that its Social Transition Plan, which includes future company plans regarding its workforce, procurement and community investment, was on track to be completed by the end of October.
Mr Strohmayr also used the forum to hose down citywide rumours that significant deposits had been found during exploration around the Mount Isa Golf Club.
“I just hope if we do find anything it will be underground so it won’t affect anyone wanting to play golf,” he joked.