MINERAL giant Glencore announced today it is shutting down its Mount Isa underground copper operations and copper concentrator after 60 years of operation, throwing 1200 jobs into uncertainty.
Mount Isa parish priest Fr Mick Lowcock said announcements like this always come as a shock, but the community was aware the operations had to wind down eventually.
Glencore said it would shut the mine in the second half of 2025, saying in a press release that the mine was no longer “economically viable”.
“We know this decision will be disappointing for our people, our suppliers, and the Mount Isa community,” Glencore’s Zinc Assets in Australia chief operating officer Sam Strohmayr said.
“The reality of mining is that mines have a beginning, middle and end.
“And unfortunately, after 60 years of operation, Mount Isa’s underground copper operations have now reached that end.”
Fr Lowcock was hopeful that many of the locals working in the mines would be retained while job cuts could be limited to fly-in-fly-out workers.
He said this could be a mixed blessing.
Fly-in-fly-out workers had no stake in the community, he said, and because they filled up airline seats months in advance, the more there were, the higher travel costs became for locals.
The mines had historically been the main attractor for work in the region, but Fr Lowcock said even if all the mines shut tomorrow, the Mt Isa community would still be there.
He said the town was a hub for medical services and other resources that served communities out to the border.
On top of this, he said about 20 per cent of the community were Indigenous Australians who were unlikely to relocate.
Further closures were unlikely though.
Fr Lowcock said the mines in the region would remain important for many decades to come as the ground was rich in rare-earth metals essential to modern technology.
Mount Isa Mines’ other metals assets including the copper smelter, George Fisher Mine, zinc-lead concentrator, and lead smelter in Mount Isa, as well as the copper refinery in Townsville, would all continue operating.
