A couple of days ago I summarised where we stood with the airline inquiry saga.
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As important as it is, it was far from the only major issue dominating news in the North West in 2018.
Mining remains crucial to our region and we had some big project come to fruition with the reopening of New Century and Lady Loretta, both taking advantage of booming zinc prices in the world market.
New Century is particularly impressive seeming like an unlikely prospect when MMG closed down the original plant in 2015. Tailings waste accumulated from the mine’s past 16 years of production are brought to life using innovative hydraulic mining – the only such project in Australia. The reopening has also been a boon to the port of Karumba, with the resumption of dredging.
Meanwhile Glencore partially reopened Lady Loretta with Brisbane based Redpath Australia awarded a mining contract to operate the mine. Glencore also rebricked the copper smelter and announced they would move into sublevel cave mining to target low grade copper.
Fly In Fly Out remains a major hurdle against long-term regional prosperity despite new government legislation against 100% FIFO, with Ardmore the latest company to announce it would install camps at its Phosphate Rock project near Dajarra.
In other news the Mount Isa Rodeo had a wonderful 60th Rodeo with innovations such as a four-day rodeo, a US v Australia competition on the Sunday, a big concert on the Sunday night and the opening of the new Rodeo Hall of Fame at Outback at Isa. There was some sadness as Rotary dropped the naming rights but fellow sponsor Mount Isa Mines will continue for at least five years as the rodeo goes from strength to strength and now a 60 year anniversary in 2019. The Isa Street Festival is also a crowd favourite carrying the tradition of the Mardi Gras into the future.
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This is the final print edition for 2018. We will continue publishing over the holidays online. The first print edition for 2019 will be Tuesday, January 8. In the meantime the North West Star wishes all its readers a wonderful Christmas and happy new year. Stay safe – Derek Barry