Mt Lyell mine set for restart

THE mining town of Queenstown has received the news it has been waiting more than three years to hear — that the Mt Lyell copper operation could be back in production with a full workforce of 300 on site in 18 months.

Mt Lyell, the oldest operating mine in Australia and the historic backbone of the town’s economy, has been on care and maintenance since 2014 when a rockfall put paid to plans to resume production following the death of three miners.

The State Government will invest $9.5 million to fast-track construction works which will allow Copper Mines of Tasmania to bring forward a restart.

The new funding comes on top of the $25 million incentive to forgo payroll tax and royalty payments offered in 2015.

Mt Lyell’s general manager Peter Walker has forecast a restart date of between six and 18 months — depending on when underground development is complete.

Both he, and West Coast Mayor Phil Vickers, hope many of the workers who left Queenstown and Tasmania when they lost their jobs will return. The company has assured local contractors they will be given preference.

When the mine employed 300, it paid out more than $30 million in wages to those workers each year, with much of that spent in Queenstown.

While the number of tourism dollars spent on the West Coast has increased over the past three years, those wages have been missed.

In a coffee shop in Queenstown’s main street yesterday, locals discussed the latest development with gusto, albeit tempered with a little trepidation that there would be more bad news to come.

“This sounds like the real deal,” one woman said. “Mt Lyell might be back.”

The latest government package will fund the redevelopment of the decline used to bring ore to the race, repairs to a tunnel which manages water flows, the replacement of a 100-year-old pipeline, and an upgrade of the crushing mill.

CMT is also investing heavily in the restart, with more than $100 million already spent keeping the mine in care and maintenance and another $80-100 million expected to go towards new works.

Between 50 and 60 workers will be needed almost immediately to start construction work.

“We would like to engage contractors to begin the tunnel work in the next few weeks and for the main decline to work in the next one to two months,” Mr Walker said.

CEO of Zinc International and CMT at Vedanta, Deshnee Naidoo, flew in from Johannesburg for the funding an- nouncement. Ms Naidoo said the support shown to Mt Lyell by the Government and the community had been “staggering”.

“When the mine restarts it will not be run how it has been for the last 100 years. We are looking at innovative ways to make a restart and to have local support is amazing,” she said.

The new innovations include electric vehicles underground and addressing water drainage issues.

Resources Minister Guy Barnett said CMT’s recent announcement that it was reviewing restart plans on the back of improved metal prices meant it was time for the Government to support that push.

Mr Barnett said it would be a great outcome for employment in the region, but also for the environment.

“An operational mine delivers the best environmental outcome for the state and allows legacy issues to be addressed,” he said.

Premier Will Hodgman said he did not want to be the premier who missed an opportunity to get Mt Lyell back operating.

“This region has suffered in recent years and this investment will return significant dividends to the state,” Mr Hodgman said.

“The company has hung on and we want to back them and back the region.”

We are looking at innovative ways to make a restart and to have local support is amazing DESHNEE NAIDOO