Why this picturesque Aussie city could soon be wiped off the map

Daily Mail​

23-07-2025

Thousands of North Queensland jobs could be lost as Swiss mining giant Glencore considers shutting down its operations in Mount Isa and Phosphate Hill.
Business advocacy group Townsville Enterprise said the ripple effects could put up to 17,000 jobs at risk across the Northern Queensland economy.
Mount Isa, a city with a population of about 20,000 in the state's Gulf Country region, is largely dependent on mining, in particular Glencore's copper and silver-lead zinc facilities.
A memo circulated to staff on Wednesday painted a bleak outlook. Glencore's interim CEO warned the company is 'fast reaching the point' where it must place both facilities into care and maintenance unless a rescue deal is reached.
'To date Glencore has been absorbing losses hopeful that a viable solution could be found,' the memo stated.
'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.'
The closure of the two copper operations would directly impact around 550 Glencore workers, with an additional 500 jobs under threat at Dyno Nobel's Phosphate Hill operations.
Roland Lobegeiger, field services manager at mechanical firm Isadraulics, said the consequences for Mount Isa would be far-reaching. 'Without it, the town's not going to be here,' he told news.com.au.
'There are other mines, there would be other work in the area, but would the town recover? It's hard to say,' he said.
'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.'
Senior Glencore executive Suresh Vadnagra told The Australian the miner was still hopeful of a partnership with government to keep the sites alive, potentially including a public equity stake.
'We have been engaging with government for the past five months,' he said.
'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. Time is running out.'
Glencore expects the two copper assets could lose billions of dollars over the next seven years, citing rising costs and an increasingly uncompetitive business environment.
The warning comes amid broader struggles across Australia's smelting sector. Rio Tinto-owned Tomago, the nation's largest aluminium smelter, is also seeking government support as it battles soaring energy prices and competition from China.
Industry Minister Tim Ayres signalled the federal government was open to stepping in, telling The Australian Financial Review.
'The truth is, if these facilities didn't exist, governments would be trying to build them,' he said.
Meanwhile, Dr John Coyne, Director of National Security Programs at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute warned the closure could risk national security.
'Without access to local smelting, transport and processing costs will increase, threatening their viability and accelerating the decline of Australia's domestic metals processing sector.' Coyne said.
He argued that China, the United States and Europe were moving to secure their own supply chains, in the case of a crisis.
'Australia's failure to think strategically puts its long-term prosperity at risk. Copper demand is expected to double over the next decade' he said.