Initial ANDEV articles

Vision for the Future

Rio Tinto’s decision to team up with a Chinese State Owned Enterprise to develop the massive high grade iron ore Simandou province in Guinea might sound attractive to Rio Tinto’s London based board. But this, and the emergence of 400,000 DWT ships and Asian ports being modified to handle, will dramatically affect and potentially damage the future of West Australia in ways that, regrettably, are getting little attention in the public domain.

Simandou is a very high grade iron ore province that, when developed, will be able to produce not only iron ore for decades at low cost, but once infrastructure is established in Guinea, will pave the way for other minerals in serious competition to Australia’s interests.

Rio are wanting to take advantage of Guinea’s relatively low labour costs to export iron ore in increasing quantities to Asian markets, markets that we would like to think of as Australia’s forever. These changes will occur in the near future – within four to five years – meaning that Australia has a very short time to prepare.

We cannot simply wish these developments away or ignore them.

For more, view the PDF.

Let us bring in workers to a special northern zone

Australia needs urgent solutions to avoid an economic implosion, says a group of leading mining and other executives from around Australia.

What occurred in the last mining boom is happening again too fast. High wages due to scarce labour during construction don’t just risk turning companies away from making future investments in Australia – the types of investment that provide long term jobs – they push up prices for everyone else. People not in the mining sector especially feel the pain when interest rates rise in a two pronged economy. These are some of the concerns expressed by this executive Group.

The executive group has called for a special Northern Economic Zone stretching across the North of West Australia, Northern Territory and Northern Queensland, where companies can bring in temporary labour to our remote North for construction periods only to alleviate this pressure. Other benefits such as lowering personal taxation for Australians willing to work and live in these Northern regions is also promoted by this executive Group, to encourage domestic migration to Northern areas, and reduce the pressure on capital city infrastructure and escalating land and home prices. The Group highlights that people living in the North have to endure conditions not faced by people in the South of Australia, excessive heat for long periods of time, cyclones, multitude of snakes, distance from city life and amenities and usually their families, so, according to the Group, should receive additional incentives, such as reduced personal taxation, to encourage more people to live in the North.

For more, view the PDF.