Queensland’s Oaky Creek mine complex looks set to expand next year, with a proposal from the company to reopen the open cut mine that shut in 2006.
Under Xstrata’s plan, the open cut mine would be operational from mid next year. This is good news for jobs and we hope it’s good news for our community.
While the number of potential new jobs is not yet clear – it could be 100 or more – we’d like to see a commitment from Xstrata to develop adequate family housing for new workers.
I have returned from my tour of regional mines and mining communities in NSW and Queensland with Paris Mashego of the National Union of Mine Workers (NUM) in South Africa.
Yesterday, Paris Mashego and I travelled to the Northern District on day two of our regional tour of Xstrata mines in NSW and Queensland.
I would have liked this report to be about our time meeting the troops at the Glendell mines.
Xstrata put a stop to that.
The local management there notified Northern District Union officials Paris and I were not able to visit there.
But it takes a lot to get us down, so instead today Paris had the chance to meet with Northern District delegates in Cessnock.
Xstrata boss Mick Davis might not be too keen on meeting with us, but at least representatives of the country his billion-dollar company calls home are.
This week myself and the Miners Union National Executive Tony Maher, Andrew Vickers and Ian Murray met with the Swiss Ambassador to Australia and the Consul General in Sydney to talk about Xstrata.
It was a very productive meeting. We spoke to Ambassador Woker and Consul General Meli about all the concerns we have about Xstrata and they were very interested to hear them.
I’ve become increasingly alarmed at Xstrata’s behaviour in our Queensland mining towns.
It seems to me Xstrata is acting to bust up the close-knit communities that have formed in towns like Tieri and Glenden, which house the workers and their families from the Oaky Creek and Newlands mines.
Xstrata is doing its best to buy up all assets and services, pushing local businesspeople out of town and making sure the money paid out in wages comes straight back into company coffers.
We are concerned about Xstrata’s impact on our work rights, our mining communities and our environment.
By sharing information, we aim to pressure Xstrata into acting fairly and ethically.
Xstratafacts is an initiative of the CFMEU Mining and Energy Division, the union for Australian miners.
This site is not run by Xstrata plc and does not reflect the views of the company. If you are looking for the Xstrata company web site go to www.xstrata.com.
