Article by Hamish Hastie courtesy of the Age
Western Australia’s mining industry was staring down the barrel of what it thought could be annihilation in March last year.
But fast forward 12 months and the sector is rocketing, officially hiring more people than at the peak of the mining boom in 2013.
Figures for 2020 released by the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety on Thursday reveal the extraordinary resilience of the mining sector, which has been boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic rather than hindered by it.
After a shaky March and April miners hit their straps by July, resulting in average employment of 113,056 full-time jobs for the year – and 141,000 total people employed – and blowing past the previous record of just under 110,000 full-time equivalents set in 2013.
With the oil and gas sector at the mercy of lower prices, the overwhelming majority of new jobs were in iron ore and gold.
Association of Mining and Exploration Companies chief executive Warren Pearce said the emergence of COVID felt like the end of the world but had actually “supercharged” the sector thanks to WA being one of the only mining jurisdictions in the world left relatively untouched by the virus.
“So many mining jurisdictions around the world have been shut down or operate under restrictive measures,” he said.
“We are operating under a much better environment than our other competitors.”
Mr Pearce said WA was also helped by countries like China as they embarked on huge stimulus programs to kickstart their post-COVID economies, which would require Australian iron ore.
Records were also set in mineral and petroleum sales, which reached $174 billion in 2020, eclipsing the previous single calendar year or financial year record of $173 billion set in 2019-20.
Once again, iron ore made up the bulk of this measure with a record of 846 million tonnes sold on the back of the highest iron ore prices since 2011, driven by COVID and tailings dam-related supply issues in Brazil and greater demand from Chinese steel mills.
Iron ore sales hit $116 billion in 2020, resulting in $7.8 billion in royalties paid to the WA government.
Gold sales also reached a record $17 billion thanks to an average Australian dollar gold price of more than $2500 per ounce.
“We’ve been able to demonstrate our reliability as a global partner in the resources sector that attracted customers for our businesses and created employment for Western Australians, but it is also showing global investors that we’re a safe destination,” he said.
Even with a skills crisis looming, Mr Johnston reaffirmed the government’s commitment to reduce interstate FIFO.
He also ruled out making changes to gold or iron ore royalty payments, which was hinted at by the opposition during the election campaign.
Employment in the lithium industry was down 1352 jobs, or 2337 full time positions.
The department said the larger fall in FTEs suggested the state’s remaining lithium producers have managed the downturn by reducing worker hours rather than through layoffs.
Another promising sign for the sector was investment growth – up $3 billion to $20 billion, compared to 2019 – however it is still well below its peak of $50 billion in 2012.
As of this month, WA has about $140 billion worth of resources projects in the development pipeline.