Gas to be the next fuel to fire Australia's boom

On Monday an Australian executive of mining giant Rio Tinto will face court in China charged with stealing commercial secrets in a trial Australian lawmakers are concerned is linked to Beijing's unsuccessful campaign to get lower iron ore prices. The case has added to unease about close China relations after a string of deals for state-owned Chinese firms to buy into Australian resource projects.

Other problems are local but no less intractable.

Gorgon, Browse and some of the other big deposits lie off the Pilbara, a remote Outback region of Western Australia that is buffeted by a half-dozen cyclones a year and where temperatures can soar to 118 degrees (48 C).

Western Australia's few urban areas are already bursting at the seams because of the mining boom. A five-hour flight across nearly unbroken desert from Sydney, the state capital of Perth can't build hotels fast enough to keep up with demand, and cranes building office towers dot the skyline.

A severe worker shortage means companies compete for just about everyone from mine site managers to truck drivers — who can earn more than A$120,000 a year in salary and a rest and recuperation flight to Perth every month.

One of the main supply towns is Karratha, a sweltering collection of houses and a few shops and pubs nestled between hills covered in spinifex and boulders of a deep-maroon color that belies the iron content within.

Holland is one of the lucky ones. Rio Tinto in the 1980s offered to sell some company-owned houses to longtime workers for around A$45,000, and he took it up. Before too long he plans to sell up and retire in comfort to Thailand.

The federal government has appointed a task force to find ways to fill an expected shortfall of 70,000 construction workers in the resource sector in the next decade, with fast tracking of visas for skilled migrant workers — likely from Asia and the Middle East — a key consideration.

Gorgon alone is expected to create 10,000 jobs — including several thousand workers during construction on currently uninhabited Barrow Island.

1|2

PrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email