Minister Lynham was in town on Thursday where he briefed the Mayor on the status of the North West Mineral Province Blueprint while council raised some issues of their own.

“The CEO (Sharon Ibardolaza) and I had a very good meeting with the Minister, we spoke about water and energy, the efficiency of the water deliver in Mount Isa and the efficiency of all the agencies involved,” Cr McCulloch said.

“He does understand that water is a high cost to our community.”

The Mayor said Dr Lynham had recently acquired the water portfolio.

“So he is keen to sink his teeth into it and he listened to concerns we have in respect to water.”

Cr McCulloch said Council were still taking water from Lake Moondarra but with the lake level hovering just about 30 percent it would mean they would soon have to move to take water from Lake Julius, which is still around 70 percent full.

Cr McCulloch said her chat with Minister Lynham about energy brought up some interesting ideas.

“With energy Mount Isa is not connected to the national grid and we all know the reasons why but what we really need to think about is it really going to think about is it really going to be truly beneficial to Mount Isa to be connected to the national grid or do we do another alternative where we provide cheaper energy for our community,” she said.

“Council is already speaking to a number of organisations in respect to energy, we’re looking at the renewable energy models that are in place and how effective they are for the communities they service.

The Mayor said there was progress on the status of the North West Mineral Province Blueprint.

“We had a visit from the Department a few weeks ago,” she said.

“Quite a few people from the Department came to visit and we went through the process of rolling it out, and definitely everything is on track.”

Part of the Blueprint is geoscience initiatives rolled out as part of the government’s $27 million exploration program.