Lodestone Mines has confirmed it is pushing to have work begin on a new iron ore mine by 2025, with construction employing up to 500 people and eventually scaling up to a fulltime workforce of 1500 by 2030.
The company expects to be producing 20million tonnes of iron ore when the site is fully operational and they want to encourage workers to live in the community, not fly in and fly out.
The new mine will be 45km south east of Olary in South Australia, some 115km from Broken Hill, and will join other new planned mine operations – Cobalt Blue and Hawsons Iron – which are all expected to boost Broken Hill’s jobs and economy.
Lodestone’s Chairman, Gordon Toll, and Chief Operating Officer, Robert Williamson, confirmed to the Barrier Truth this week the mining behemoth is aiming to have the new mine underway by 2025, and fully operational five years after that.
“We’re setting ourselves a tough time goal,” Mr Toll admits but he says they will stick to the schedule.
When fully operational the aim is to employ 300 people over three shifts, so 100 per shift, eventually scaling up to a 1500-strong workforce, ideally made up almost entirely of locals or people laying down roots in the community.
“At the start, we will be looking at a workforce where there will be three different 12-hour shifts,” said Mr Williamson.
“So, there’ll be always two shifts and one on break. And for the whole operation, most probably 100 people per shift. So, 300 people to begin with.”
Mr Toll points out once employment begins, it’s a natural multiplier in the community.
“We’ll grow to about 1500 employees as the mine grows. When we were developing in Tasmania, we figured for every direct job there were another 2.5 jobs created in the local economy. I’m not quite sure what the multiplier is going to be here, but it’s going to be somewhere around 2.5 to three additional jobs,” Mr Toll added.
KEEPING JOBS LOCAL
And locality is crucial to the company, with Mr Toll saying, “we’d rather they live here. We don’t want them to fly. We’re not going to pay people to fly from Brisbane to Broken Hill and then catch a bus. We want people to have a family life too.
“Keeping it local and not destroying the social fabric of our local society. I think that’s important. We like the idea of our workforce being local. I don’t like the long-scheduled Fi-Fo. It destroys families,” Mr Toll says.
The mining company also wants to break the mould with who they employ. Each person will be judged on their own merits, with jobs available to everybody.
“I think we’d be looking at things differently to some of the other mines that have started up in the way that we accommodate people and what ends we may go to,” Mr Williamson says.
“They’ll be top notch jobs. Highly paid jobs. High quality employment,” says Mr Toll.
“We are obviously dealing with Native Title and the local Wilyakali people. Rob and I are both determined to have a broad approach to it all. No gender divisions or anything like that. For example, disability is a bad word because a lot of people that are classified as disabled have incredible capabilities,” Mr Toll added.
PLANS FOR HOUSING SOLUTIONS
They both admit there are plenty of hurdles to jump before the mine comes to fruition. Housing is a big issue in the Silver City right now, but Lodestone believes it is an issue they can overcome with some out-of-the-box thinking and through their partnership with Foundation Broken Hill.
“Foundation Broken Hill has a project to look at the housing problem. We put up $25,000 a year into Foundation Broken Hill. Along with us there is Stephen Radford, Perilya, CBH as well, and Cobalt Blue. Foundation is based on money they can’t spend, and they just take the interest. When the interest almost went to zero, that’s when the five of us mining companies stepped in,” said Mr Williamson.
“I don’t think I’m at liberty to say what Foundation are doing, but they do have some good ideas around how to increase the housing market in Broken Hill.”
Regardless of any hurdles, both Mr Toll and Mr Williamson agree the future of Broken Hill is bright, and that mining has a huge part to play in that future.
“The future of Broken Hill is definitely in mining, from our perspective,” says Mr Toll.
He adds, “there are a lot of people here that are very employable. I think we really need to decentralise the world a little bit. Don’t put everyone in huge, impersonal cities, and a town like Broken Hill is ideal in that regard.”
