NT town decimated as iron ore mine shuts

Advertisement
imgres

From the ABC:

The Northern Territory town of Pine Creek has been shattered by news that its biggest employer, the Frances Creek iron ore mine, will be shut down by November, with the loss of hundreds of jobs.

Local business owners have told ABC Rural they were advised of the closure at a meeting with the company, Territory Iron, late last week, with residents from the Kybrook Farm Aboriginal community also informed of the shut-down.

Mining services contractor Ray Woolridge attended the Pine Creek meeting, and says locals were told operations would start winding down at the mine immediately.

“Basically [they said] it would be all over by November, apart from a small exploration crew and an environmental crew to look after the mine shut-down,” Mr Woolridge said.

“Last December they said the workforce was around 320, and by November this year it will be down to 20.”

Around 600 people live in Pine Creek, 200 kilometres south of Darwin, a town which relies heavily on jobs and trade generated by the Frances Creek mine.

Mr Woolridge says local residents and business owners have been left reeling by the decision, and now face an uncertain future.

“Any closure of a mine is serious, and it will have a big economic impact,” he said.

“It will effect the social fabric of the town. You can’t take that number of people out of a town and not have an impact.

“But Pine Creek is a resilient town. It was founded on the mining industry and the railways, and it will continue to be a mining town.

“It has a good heart and a strong community.”

…”You would think if the iron ore price crept back, and did get up around $120 [per tonne] again, then maybe there is an option to re-open,” he said.

Sadly, it won’t be reopening.

Advertisement
About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.