LEIGH KENWORTHY:  Visiting Burnie, the north-west coast and also the King Island today, Federal Resources Minister, Madeleine King. Thanks for your time this morning.  Welcome to 7BU Breakfast.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING:  It’s great to be here, Leigh. I’m driving around the north of Tasmania with Anne Urquhart, the Member for Braddon, we’re getting around to a number of mines and also the TasRail shiploader this morning.  Very impressive construction. 
  
LEIGH KENWORTHY: Where do we start?  Let’s find out a little bit about the TasRail first.  What’s the state of play there?  

MINISTER MADELEINE KING:  Well the government, Federal government, invested over $80 million in building up that shiploader capacity so I was lucky enough to get a tour around that this morning, walk up on to the galleys and see the fantastic views, but also the amazing potential for more of mineral exports to come out of Tasmania and this side of Tasmania off to the mainland and to other places around the world.  So it’s a great export potential story for Burnie and for the whole of the region. So a really great investment by the Federal government, a pleasure to have gone and seen them myself.  

LEIGH KENWORTHY: Minister, it serves as a really common user gateway for this area, for the mining industry doesn’t it?  

MINISTER MADELEINE KING:  Absolutely and common user facilities are really a priority for the Albanese Labor government to make sure more companies can make more use of those really important bits of infrastructure that government can put investment in to.  

LEIGH KENWORTHY: Yep.  

MINISTER MADELEINE KING:  And that shared infrastructure is so vital and it enables more development as well and responsible development of different industries. Of course the resources industry is the one I’m responsible for so I was very keen to see the deposits and all the commodities there ready to go when the next ship arrives.  

LEIGH KENWORTHY: And back to 2024 the new modernised shiploader was commissioned as part of that $82 million project to all the upgrades and that was all funded by your government of course.  

MINISTER MADELEINE KING:  Yes that’s right.  And I know talking to Anne Urquhart earlier and she was letting me know that the Prime Minister visited, when he visited he went right to the very top -  

LEIGH KENWORTHY: He did.
 
MINISTER MADELEINE KING:  - of the shiploader, and I’ve got to say I was a bit too chicken to do that today.  

LEIGH KENWORTHY: I don’t blame you.
 
MINISTER MADELEINE KING:  I had a bit of a walk up the stairs but that’s very courageous if you ask me. So it’s a great delivery and delivering in enabling infrastructure that’s so important for industry.  

LEIGH KENWORTHY: Very important.
 
MINISTER MADELEINE KING:  Great to be part of that. 

LEIGH KENWORTHY: Yeah.  And just bring us up-to-date with the situation with Mount Lyell because we know it’s been in care and maintenance for some time now I think since about 2014.  There is a chance that it may reopen at some point this year? 
 
MINISTER MADELEINE KING:  Well, yes, I met with Sibanye-Stillwater, the owners of the Mount Lyell copper mine and the status is that they’ve done a feasibility study, a really in depth one, and that is going to the board to make a decision in this year.  So I don’t know if they’ll be able to start operations this year but they’ll certainly, looks like they’ll be making a decision this year. And as I’ve said to them this morning, the sooner the better on that decision would be better for the community of Queenstown and surrounds.  So the thing about the Mount Lyell mine at the moment is there’s such a lot going for it.  The conditions of the underground mine have improved vastly as they needed to.  The market for copper and the smaller product of gold is out of sight better than it was when the mine shut down in 2014.  

LEIGH KENWORTHY: Yeah, those kind of prices are record highs at the moment.
 
MINISTER MADELEINE KING:  That will be a big part of this.  There’s no doubt about it, and that’s the commodities industry for you, Leigh, it does fluctuate and that mine shutdown when it was no longer sustainable or profitable for the balance sheet which is, that effects a lot of people in communities.  All the workers in the mines but also the support services, the cafés, the hospitality services around.  So it’s really important that Sibanye-Stillwater have a really good think about this.  They know there’s a lot going for this mine reopening.  They’ve got to make the decision and I have to leave that to them but there’s a lot going for this mine.  They know more about that deposit now than they did ten years ago or so, a bit more than that when it shut down. So I’m feeling positive about it and I’ll do my level best to make sure we can get a positive outcome.  

LEIGH KENWORTHY: And no doubt say you’ll play a role of course with federal governments when you get back to Canberra?  

MINISTER MADELEINE KING:  Well, I hope. I’ll do whatever I can.  We’ll keep in touch with the owners of Mount Lyell. I know how important it is to the people of Queenstown and I know my friend and colleague Anne Urquhart, the Member for Braddon, is going to be on my back as well to make sure the federal government can do all it can to help get this going.  But company itself is doing a lot of work and I respect that work and also work with the West Coast Council has been really important as well.  

LEIGH KENWORTHY: Three miners tragically died in 2014.  The mine was effectively shut down.  It was put in to care and maintenance.  What’s important here is a good sound operation that is work safe and good for the environment that’s paramount.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING:  The owners of the mine have been looking at this for a number of years and investing and making the underground side of this safe because of those tragic deaths a number of years ago which no-one – their families will never forget that and neither will the mining community.  So that’s good that that investment has happened already. And how they build on that sort of front cost if you like, to make sure that there’s a future prosperity for Queenstown and for the Mount Lyell mine, will be a matter for the company to look at.  But, you know, I’m pretty hopeful and we’ll do all we can to help.  

LEIGH KENWORTHY: So in a nutshell work is progressing well towards the potential reopening of Mount Lyell copper mine after the completion of the feasibility study.  Federal Resources Minister, Madeleine King, thanks for your time this morning. Burnie yesterday and I believe King Island today?  

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: King Island to the Tungsten Mine there, the Dolphin Mine which is in a really important part of the critical minerals venture this country is on and we lead globally on critical minerals. And Tasmania is going to be a part of the story and King Island in particular.