A deal gone bad is about to cost Mount Isa resident Joe Rodgers his pride and joy – his mining lease near Dajarra.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
“I’m 66 and I’ve been mixed up with mining all my life – I know mining, I’ve worked at Mount Isa Mines for over 20 years,” Mr Rogers said.
“I have my own little show out here, Peter Craigie I call it, it’s named for my grandfather from Dajarra who fought in the first world war.”
A few years ago Mr Rogers signed over 80% of the mine to a company to do drilling but that deal has since fallen through leaving him unable to pay the upkeep on the mining lease.
He now believes that when he is forced to return lease this week, a company will quickly snap up the rich prospects at the mine.
Mr Rogers said Peter Craigie mine was “about 22 clicks north of Dajarra on the same strike as Mount Isa Mines” and a few years ago Xstrata did analysis on the mine and it was a good result.
“There’s copper, gold and silver and it’s very rich, they drilled all the way through in some sections and it’s 80% copper and it’s nine in silver which is very high,” he said.
“The last section they drilled they hit chalcopyrite, which is very rich copper.”
Mr Rogers said he has owned the mine for some time and the mining lease runs out around 2023 but he has been dogged by bad luck.
“About 10 different times I keep getting burned by different exploration companies,” he said.
“They do a certain amount then they drop their leases on you so somebody else can come along behind them and pick them up.”
Mr Rogers said this practice has been been going on a long time. “If they had worked it, it would have been a good deal but they don’t get to the stage of working it,” he said. “They come along, do a bit then run.”
Mr Rogers had signed a deal with a company on an 80-20 arrangement where the company would pay 80% of the lease costs and get the same percentage of profits from the mine.
However in 2013 Mr Rogers was hospitalised for an extended period with what turned out to be a broken neck when the company reneged on the deal.
“I was in hospital fighting for my life when they dropped it,” he said.
“They come in and do a deal with you and drop it behind your back and once they drop it that’s it.”
That has left Mr Rogers stuck with a bill to the government for the mine he cannot afford.
“It’s got a few thousand dollars owing on it,” he said.
“I haven’t paid, I don’t have the money as I’ve been crook.”
Mr Rogers said once he handed back the lease anyone could take it up.
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
