Two towns face jobless wave as miner warns it may halt operations
The Mount Isa copper smelter and Townsville copper refinery directly employ 550 people, with 500 jobs also threatened at Dyno Nobel's Phosphate Hill operations, but lobby group Townsville Enterprise estimates 17,000 jobs are connected to the downstream copper assets.
Without government assistance, the company will have to place the Mount Isa and Townsville operations into care and maintenance, according to an internal memo to staff from Glencore's interim chief operating officer on Wednesday morning.
Roland Lobegeiger, a field services manager for Isadraulics, which services hydraulic component systems, told news.com.au the move would be a 'significant loss' not just for his company, but the town of Mount Isa.
'Without it, the town's not going to be here,' Mr Lobegeiger said.
'There are other mines – there would be other work in the area, but would the town recover? It's hard to say.
'It would be a significant change for a lot of businesses, homes, house prices – you name it. 'It's definitely a bit of a dark cloud over the area. Everyone's still optimistic that they won't shut it down, but no one knows.'
Mr Wilson's internal memo painted a grim picture of the company's position in North Queensland.
'To date Glencore has been absorbing losses hopeful that a viable solution could be found,' he wrote, according to the Townsville Bulletin.
'However, we are fast reaching the point at which Glencore cannot continue to absorb these losses.
'We need to know in the coming weeks whether there is a viable solution on the table from governments.
'Glencore is genuinely disappointed at the prospect of placing the smelter and refinery into care and maintenance if we do not receive adequate government support.'
Talks between Glencore and the Queensland and federal governments have yet to reach a solution, with the miner on track to lose billions of dollars from the two operations over the next seven years.
Senior Glencore executive Suresh Vadnagra said the company remained open to taxpayers taking a big equity stake in the refinery and smelter.
'Time is running out,' Mr Vadnagre told The Australian.
'We have been engaging with government for the past five months.
'We need to know in the coming weeks whether there is a viable solution on the table from governments or whether we start to planning to transition the copper smelter and refinery into care and maintenance.'
It comes as smelters and refineries are struggling to operate across Australia.
The country's biggest aluminium producer, the Rio Tinto-owned Tomago, has requested billions of dollars from the federal and NSW governments amid high power prices and competition with China.
The Labor government has held out the possibility of providing loans and taxpayer funds to prop up Australian smelters.
'The truth is, if these facilities didn't exist, governments would be trying to build them,' Industry Minister Tim Ayres told The Australian Financial Review.
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