The mining industry is well and truly back on its feet after a tough few years.
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That message was made clear to more than 100 delegates at the AusIMM branch conference in Cloncurry on Friday.
AusIMM CEO Stephen Durkin said things have really turned around in the north west in the past year.
“The sector overall is in really good health. Profitability is up, the value of a lot of companies have increased significantly in the past 12 months and employment is up significantly,” Mr Durkin said.
“It is absolutely correct to say the industry is back on its feet in the north west. It is also worth reminding ourselves that Australia is a world leader in mining and this region is one of the most important parts of Australia in terms of its contribution to the mining industry.
“Our reputation has always been and remains very strong,” he said.
“If there was an Olympics for mining, Australia would have been on the podium in every one of the Olympics for the past 100 years.”
The conference celebrated the rich mining history of the north west and provided exciting updates on projects in the region, AusIMM branch chair Lucas Ljubicic said.
“This year is 95 years of Mount Isa Mines and 125 years of the AusIMM so we are celebrating our history at the moment and we are looking at the opportunities of the future,” he said.
Keynote speaker Joe Pease opened the conference on Friday morning.
“Joe really talked about the barriers we have for innovation in mining and what the driving forces are to overcome those barriers so that we can adopt the progressiveness of other industries that don’t face the challenges we face,” Mr Ljubicic said.
“He talked about single line production and not being able to interrupt our money chain to adopt or test some of those technologies, and challenges around the variability in mining and the unplanned interruptions we have to our processes.”
Delegates also heard presentations about differential energy, using seismic interferometry to locate underground voids and the evolution of Ernest Henry Mine.