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WA’s booming resources sector shows no signs of slowing, with new figures revealing sales hit a record $246 billion in 2022 as demand for gas and battery metals offset lower iron ore prices. While sales of the State’s biggest export earner were down $31b on 2021 — when iron ore prices hit a record $US233 a tonne in May before tumbling unexpectedly — the steel-making commodity still generated $126b on record production of 855 million tonnes.

Get them young and maybe you’ll get them for life — that appears to be Gina Rinehart’s latest play to shore up an appreciation of mining.
The billionaire has unveiled a novel counter to the shrill opposition against the industry, launching a kids app to massage the notion that resources are not only necessary to sustain modern living, but they also offer a fabulous career. Margin Call downloaded the game – Roy Hill Mine Tales – and attempted its basic challenges: dynamite was laid, ore was loaded onto a truck, the minerals were crushed, washed with a hose, and, in a final boss challenge, they had to be sucked up and directed into the hull of a barge, probably destined for China.“All I would say is those kids might have a bright future working for the best mining company in Australia, the biggest prize of all.”

Atlas Iron is hoping to build a 3 million tonne per annum magnetite project in the Pilbara, with production to be trucked to Utah Point at Port Hedland for export. Hancock Prospecting Group chief executive of projects Sanjiv Manchanda said he was pleased to confirm the Ridley project had commenced formal approval processes. “This involves a major investment which, if economic, could provide a critical input into the long-requested further upgrading of iron ore,” Mr Manchanda said. “This (iron) material is low and needs to be upgraded, or (the resource) will sit in the ground earning no revenue for West Australians, or the state and federal governments.”

There are three reasons why Rio Tinto is developing its next big iron ore mine in the West African nation of Guinea rather than Western Australia: it’s easier, cheaper, and should be more profitable. Risks might be higher in Guinea, where Rio Tinto’s part-owned Simandou mine is taking shape, but the appeal of high-grade ore in a jurisdiction with fewer government controls outweighs potential problems. For WA, which depends on its mining industry as a wealth creator and employer, recent changes to carbon dioxide pollution laws have become the latest impediment to future investment.

In an opinion piece in The West Australian in February I explained why the State Government cannot deliver its much-hyped energy transition plan. The Government’s plan to close almost a thousand megawatts of baseload coal capacity by the end of 2029 and replace it with renewable generation and energy storage will fail because its budget for it is far too small, its time frame is far too tight, and its hope that someone in industry will come up with a magic solution for energy storage is a pipedream. Almost everyone in and around the industry understands this, and hopefully those experts are telling the McGowan Government they need a new plan.

For WA, which depends on its mining industry as a wealth creator and employer, recent changes to carbon dioxide pollution laws have become the latest impediment to future investment. The major concern is that a vision of the state adding value to its raw material exports – such as turning low-grade iron ore into a high-value product or making batteries from local metals – is in jeopardy. Unless carefully managed, there is the potential for WA to be stuck in the past as a quarry supplying basic raw materials with minimal value being added to exports.

WA’s economy is set to grow at double the rate of Australia’s over the next year thanks to continued international demand for commodities including iron ore, lithium and agricultural products. WA is expected to be the national leader in otherwise grim times, with Deloitte expecting growth in gross State product to be the highest of all States this year — at more than twice the rate of national growth.

Sunrise host and business expert David “Kochie” Koch says WA “punches above its weight” when it comes to innovation. The leaders will be discussing the future of the resources workforce. “I’m looking forward to delving into how they’re re-engineering their businesses for this global environment,” Koch said.