Thread: Keeping the West. Aus. mines open may have saved our economy

Wow how touchy.
I was just pointing out that WA is perhaps not the only saviour of Australia's economy.
An unbalanced report which also ignores a little matter of Natural gas exports.
Regards PhilipA

Originally Posted by PhilipA

Wow how touchy.
I was just pointing out that WA is perhaps not the only saviour of Australia's economy.
An unbalanced report which also ignores a little matter of Natural gas exports.
Regards PhilipA

And there are mines in Tassie that are still operational and profitable generating jobs and tax income. So not just WA albeit WA is much larger by comparison.. so that's good for us all☺

Originally Posted by PhilipA

So the 15 million tonnes of coal through Newcastle and the 15 million tonnes through Hay Point in Queensland do not count then.

Regards PhilipA

I know Darwin Port is leased by the Chinese, but read somewhere Newcastle Port is too. That true?

Originally Posted by Fatso

Was a proposal in the late 70s put up by Lang Hancock ( remember him ) & ( don't you worry about that ) to build a Rail link between the Queensland coal fields and the Pilbara iron ore fields to transport iron ore to Q/land & coal to Norwest Wa , for the purpose of building steel works in both states to process and value add the ore to steel etc .

Not sure what happened but would suggest lack of vision by Gove and the naysayers , or just too big a project at the time , mores the pity .

Sadly that sought of spirit is lacking in to-days Oz !!

Yes I remember him , I used to work at a line camp on the rail line between Newman and Pt Headland - ( redmont I think it was called- was in the mid 80's ) and I remember watching 1 of the trains go past when I first got there and the blokes were saying there's another $100 in Lang's pocket , that was per cart , not per train - How true I am not sure...

It was prolyl like most things in this country , great idea's until 1 state thinks the other is getting something more/free/extra/cheaper and it don't happen out of pure jealousy.

Bulletman

WA and QLD's mining industry has been propping up the Australian economy for a Very long time now, What is so surprising about these states doing the same old thing during this pandemic.
It isn't only iron ore that is keeping the coffers filled QLD coal is a Huge export earner as is the pretty significant Gold industry in WA.
China does have its own iron ore shows in the Midwest and about 80k south of Karratha But they pale into insignificance compared to the other major iron ore players in the Pilbara area.

[QUOTE=Bulletman;2998660]Yes I remember him , I used to work at a line camp on the rail line between Newman and Pt Headland - ( redmont I think it was called- was in the mid 80's ) and I remember watching 1 of the trains go past when I first got there and the blokes were saying there's another $100 in Lang's pocket , that was per cart , not per train - How true I am not sure...

It was prolyl like most things in this country , great idea's until 1 state thinks the other is getting something more/free/extra/cheaper and it don't happen out of pure jealousy.

Bulletman[/QUOT

Was a Train driver there in 70/80s and Hammersley Iron before that , Redmont line camp was on the the then Mt Newman Mining Co Rail Network & now called BHP Iron Ore , lang Hancock was a discoverer of iron ore in around 1964 in the Pilbara with a bloke called Ernest Archibald Maynard ( Peter ) Wright , later to become Hancock & Wright Mining then sold out to CRIA now Rio Tinto Iron ore .

Cant remember what lang & Peter got per tone from Rio but $100 a wagon probably about right , the trains were 96 & 122 cars in the early days so that's $9600 & $12200 a train back then when i started at Hammersly Iron in 1968 i was on $0.80c an hour . .

Have met lang Hancock he was a great bloke and a true Ozzy .

Originally Posted by trout1105

WA and QLD's mining industry has been propping up the Australian economy for a Very long time now, What is so surprising about these states doing the same old thing during this pandemic.
It isn't only iron ore that is keeping the coffers filled QLD coal is a Huge export earner as is the pretty significant Gold industry in WA.
China does have its own iron ore shows in the Midwest and about 80k south of Karratha But they pale into insignificance compared to the other major iron ore players in the Pilbara area.

The Sandgropers are great at blowing their iron ore trumpet but never mention the coal, grain, gold, silver, lead, zinc, bauxite, alumina, sugar, wool, cotton, cattle, carcase and package meat exported by the other states.

Originally Posted by Bigbjorn

The Sandgropers are great at blowing their iron ore trumpet but never mention the coal, grain, gold, silver, lead, zinc, bauxite, alumina, sugar, wool, cotton, cattle, carcase and package meat exported by the other states.

WA also produces ALL of those other commodities with the exception of coal