Miners wary of Qld Labor win
Queensland’s key mining lobby group said Labor’s return to power in the state was unlikely to threaten the development of key coal projects in the Galilee Basin, according to the Australian Financial Review.
Adani Enterprises’ $16.5 billion coal and rail project became a political hot potato during the campaign trail when Labor leader Annastacia Palaszczuk said the party would scrap a Newman government deal to use taxpayer’s money to help fund rail infrastructure in the coal-rich Galilee Basin region.
Queensland Resources Council chief executive Michael Roche said the Labor party had been supportive of the resources industry in the past and he didn’t expect this to change, adding that the party’s decision to revoke the infrastructure funding wouldn’t “make or break” Adani’s Carmichael project.
Mining contractors voice safety concerns over cost cutting
Mine site safety is at risk due to the severe market pressure forcing mining contractors to undertake fierce cost cutting, industry leaders warn, according to the Australian Financial Review.
In recent months there have been a number of safety incidents involving contractors on West Australian mine sites, including a fatality last month at Consolidated Minerals’ Woodie Woodie manganese mine.
Industry sources have voiced fears that the price pressure imposed by the current tightness in the sector has resulted in internal cost cutting that is impacting safety performance.
One senior executive at a contracting company said that many companies were tendering for projects at margins 30 to 50% lower than a couple of years ago, forcing intense cost-cutting measures.
Shell dumps $20B Arrow LNG project
Royal Dutch Shell has officially scrapped plans for a new $US20 billion-plus LNG gas project in Queensland in the latest fallout from the oil price slump, with the gas set to feed rival export plants instead, according to the Australian Financial Review.
Global chief executive Ben van Beurden said the proposed greenfield Arrow LNG project with PetroChina was “off the table”, while other ventures would be slowed as priority was given instead to Shell’s North American LNG projects.
