Article by Brad Thompson, courtesy of The Australian
02.09.2025
Donald Trump’s America is a better place to do business than Australia, according to global mining giant South32, whose chief executive has lashed out at the years wasted seeking approvals in processes ruled by independent panels instead of field experts.
Chief executive Graham Kerr spoke out as the Albanese government grapples with an overhaul of environment laws that Labor bungled during its first term in office.
Mr Kerr said Australia could learn a lot from the US because it was “chalk and cheese” comparing the approvals systems in the two countries.
He is scarred by long battles to have Australian projects approved during his decade in charge of the $12bn company that mines on four continents.
It took more than seven years for South32 to gain approval to continue operating its decades-old bauxite and alumina business in Western Australia, whereas the company was on track to get all approvals for its Hermosa project in Arizona – covering the Taylor, Clark and Peake mines – within four years.
On Mr Kerr’s watch, South32 also suffered huge writedowns on its Illawarra metallurgical coal business and butted heads for years with NSW authorities on the Dendrobium extension before giving up and selling the business last year.
Mr Kerr, who has led South32 since it was spun out of BHP in 2015, said Australia could not compete with jurisdictions such as the US for capital without a reinvention.
“Their process is clear. They have defined timelines that they hold everyone accountable to,” he said of the US. “They have both at the federal and state level a permitting tsar who co-ordinates the process and allows things to run in parallel.
“The total amount of work you need to do is the same. It’s just holding people to account on the deadlines and making sure you have enough resources and can parallel process the permits.
“Everyone talks about the US being challenging for permitting. For us, it’s been a dream (compared to Australia).”
It was the WA government’s decision to walk away from the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions late last year that saved South32’s bauxite and alumina business known as Worsley.
The WA government’s retreat came soon after Mr Kerr said 1700 jobs were at risk under conditions proposed by the state’s environment watchdog on plans to extend the life of the refinery through more bauxite mining in jarrah forest.
Pittsburgh-headquartered Alcoa is now trying to gain approval to expand bauxite mining in nearby jarrah forest to feed its Pinjarra and Wagerup refineries, attracting a record 59,000 submissions to the WA Environmental Protection Authority.
The WA EPA has advisory powers only, with decision-making left to the state’s environment minister. WA Premier Roger Cook – who met Alcoa boss Bill Oplinger in Perth last week – maintains that that should be the case for any federal EPA.
Former environment minister Tanya Plibersek put a big strain on Labor’s relationship with miners by trying to push what industry dubbed “half-baked” laws through parliament in the lead-up to the May election. Murray Watt took over that portfolio.
Mr Kerr wants greater clarity and clear approval requirements and timelines, as a starting point. He wants qualified experts rather than “outsourcing” of decisions to independent panels involved in assessments, and adequate resources for government agencies to meet timelines.
And not all mine approvals in the US ran as smoothly as they had for Hermosa, he conceded.
Rio Tinto and BHP bosses met Mr Trump in Washington last month to discuss the future of a giant copper project in Arizona that has been bogged down in the approvals process and court rooms for more than a decade.
The mine is opposed by some Native American tribes, including the San Carlos Apache, and a coalition of environmentalists.
Mr Kerr said he had been to the White House three times in the past 18 months. South32 had done a lot of work with communities around the Hermosa project in the Patagonia Mountains, about 80km southeast of Tucson, where the company hopes to apply some of the underground mining and processing methods used at its Cannington silver, lead and zinc mine in Queensland.
Hermosa was the first mining project added to the FAST-41 list of what the US regards as critical infrastructure projects deserving of expedited permitting.
“That’s made the world difference for us and that did require a lot of visits to Washington,” Mr Kerr said. “We have some unique advantages in that we’re underground, we’re in the mountains.
“And if you look at Taylor, Clark and Peake, they’re potentially producing three critical minerals – zinc, copper and manganese.”
