In Western Australia business is booming for the mining and resources sector. The number of fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) workers employed in the state has increased over the last five years to more than 35,000…
Last week saw a shareholders’ meeting of the mining company Bumi plc in London. Shareholders meetings are hardly unusual events. But this was no ordinary shareholders meeting. It involved a major Indonesian…
The concept of a ‘social licence to operate’ (SLO) is not new. It has been used widely in the mining and minerals industry for some 15 years where it has generally described the informal acceptance or…
The board of BHP Billiton Limited today announced the retirement of chief executive officer and inside director Marius Kloppers. Dr Kloppers is a 20-year veteran of the company, serving 12 years as a senior…
Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation dan Georgina Moore, The Conversation
Marius Kloppers, who today announced his intention to resign as CEO of mining firm BHP Billiton, leaves behind a formidable legacy in both mining and politics as head of a firm that campaigned for a scaled-down…
Most controversial public policy could be said to be made on the run, or at least amended on a brisk walk. So the revelations in Peter Martin’s recent article on the errors embedded in the Gillard government’s…
The recent partnership announced between Nucoal Mining and Narara Valley High School in NSW has drawn some divided reactions. The mining company says the aim of the new venture will be to improve the maths…
Various explanations have been offered for Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s decision to announce the date of the 2013 federal election almost eight months in advance. Most commentators, both those who applaud…
The prospect of people settling away from Earth has been a topic for dreamers and visionaries for some time. But if it’s ever to happen for real, there needs to be more than starry-eyed optimism. There…
Barely a week passes without media coverage of some aspect of the real or perceived impacts of fly-in fly-out (FIFO) and drive-in drive-out (DIDO) work, especially in the mining sector. We hear about the…
Just a week before Christmas, Environment Minister Tony Burke approved Shree Minerals’ mine near Temma in the Tarkine region of north-west Tasmania. Perhaps he hoped the announcement would get lost in…
Yesterday an anti-coal activist, Jonathan Moylan issued a media release purportedly from the ANZ Bank withdrawing a $1.2 billion loan to Whitehaven Coal, which is developing a project in Maules Creek in…
In Australia, we ride on the open cut mine’s back. In the island state of Tasmania, there is a medium size-class open cut mine (928 hectares) with 210 hectares of settling ponds, from which iron nodules…
The shifts worked by mining and energy employees are detrimental to sleep patterns, mental health and family life, the preliminary findings of an Australian study have shown. The Australian Coal and Energy…
A stocktake of research conducted into regional development in Australia shows that we are failing to do sufficient research on opportunities for sustainable growth and prosperity in regional Australia…
It seems no-one is quite sure what to think of the resource boom anymore. Long considered the factor that saved Australia from the GFC, the suspension, delay or scaling back of a number of mining projects…
The Queensland State Government recently announced it would take up uranium mining again. The topic of uranium mining often raises concern about environmental risk. While past uranium mining in Queensland…
On Tuesday Lateline ran a story built around a report: “Developing the West Kimberley’s Resources” that the program breathlessly presented as a “secret plan” to industrialise the region, unlock its resources…