{"id":33846,"date":"2025-07-31T01:51:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T01:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/33846\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T01:51:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T01:51:14","slug":"mount-isas-underground-copper-mine-ceases-production-after-70-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/33846\/","title":{"rendered":"Mount Isa’s underground copper mine ceases production after 70 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ground usually shakes twice a day in Mount Isa \u2014 it has done so for seven decades.<\/p>\n

But today, the underground blasts won’t happen.<\/p>\n

It’s a silence that marks the end of copper mining in one of the richest mineral deposits in the world.<\/p>\n

The closure of Mount Isa Mines’ underground copper operation, owned by Swiss multinational Glencore, has cost close to 500 direct jobs.<\/p>\n

Mount Isa Mayor Peta MacRae said the mine loomed large in the city.<\/p>\n

“It is ingrained in our psyche,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think there’s any other towns where it is actually built right around the mine.”<\/p>\n

\"composite<\/p>\n

Staff perform final checks before initiating a 1.3-million-tonne mass blast. (Supplied: Barry Merrick\/Mount Isa Mines Photographic Collection)<\/p>\n

Cr MacRae said the reality was yet to set in for many residents.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s going to take a couple of months for us to fully realise the impact of this,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We hear people are slowly moving away and it saddens us when we know that potentially there’s still so much opportunity left here.”<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

The mine’s Urquhart Shaft headframe at the top of the diagram is visible from Mount Isa’s CBD. (Supplied: Barry Merrick\/Mount Isa Mines Photographic Collection)<\/p>\n

Earth-shattering alarm clock<\/p>\n

Historian and archivist Barry Merrick said the blasts felt by residents were caused by the detonation of explosives used to reach valuable metals like copper, zinc and silver.<\/p>\n

They happened at 8am and 8pm sharp.<\/p>\n

For residents the blasts were a daily ritual, but for visitors they were often a surprise.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

The operation advanced mining and processing technologies in the 1990s. (Supplied: Barry Merrick\/Mount Isa Mines Photographic Collection)<\/p>\n

Mount Isa resident Jenelle Robartson said “a huge one” went off one day while backpackers were visiting a local bottle shop.<\/p>\n

“All the bottles were shaking on the walls clinking together and they both ducked under the counter and put their hands over their heads,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We all kind of had a bit of a giggle but then had to explain it was just the mines.”<\/p>\n

And a former ABC reporter once thought he had stumbled across a big story, after feeling a blast in his hotel during his first night in Mount Isa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

‘Boom time’ to closure<\/p>\n

The 1.9-kilometre-deep copper mine has fed the smelter that sits beneath the city’s candy-cane-striped smokestack for 70 years.<\/p>\n

It was Australia’s deepest underground copper mine and the country’s third-largest producer of copper.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

About 600 metres underground, a cactus grab is operated from a suspended cabin then raised to the surface. (Supplied: Barry Merrick\/Mount Isa Mines Photographic Collection)<\/p>\n

The mine is so big that if you joined the 900 kilometres of underground tunnels together, you could drive through them from Mount Isa to Townsville.<\/p>\n

Mr Merrick said the mine was established in 1924, but it was mainly a lead, zinc and silver mine for its first 30 years.<\/p>\n

He said it wasn’t until World War II that the mine temporarily shifted its focus to copper at the request of the federal government to help with the war effort.<\/p>\n

\"historic<\/p>\n

The firing switch powered the firing lines connected to explosives in the mine. (Supplied: Barry Merrick\/Mount Isa Mines Photographic Collection)<\/p>\n

A surge on global copper demand in 1953 led the Mount Isa Mines to launch a dual-stream copper and lead-zinc-silver production, as well as commission a copper smelter \u2014 which is now burned into the city’s skyline.<\/p>\n

“From then on it was just boom time after boom time,” Mr Merrick said.<\/p>\n

“There was always expansion work, accommodation in town was next to impossible to get and the influx of people was everywhere.”<\/p>\n

Century life span<\/p>\n

By 1975, the mine had extracted 10 million tonnes of copper ore.<\/p>\n

Mr Merrick said the closure was a reminder that the earth’s minerals were a finite resource.<\/p>\n

“It doesn’t keep growing, if you take it out, nothing can replace it,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"an<\/p>\n

Workers celebrated the 10 millionth tonne of ore hauled from the X41 Copper Mine. (Supplied: Barry Merrick\/Mount Isa Mines Photographic Collection)<\/p>\n

The historian said \u202fcopper mine’s end was only a few years shy of what was predicted of its counterpart zinc, lead and silver mine back in 1929.<\/p>\n

“The government geologist said at that point in time, Mount Isa would have a life of 100 years at the rate that they were extracting the ore,” Mr Merrick said.<\/p>\n

While copper production may have ceased, Glencore Metals Australia interim chief operating officer Troy Wilson said the mine’s legacy would live on in Mount Isa.<\/p>\n

\"underground<\/p>\n

Ring firing foreman Norm Mitchell prepares for Australia’s largest mass blast in an underground mine in 1975. (Supplied: Barry Merrick\/Mount Isa Mines Photographic Collection)<\/p>\n

“Mount Isa Mines, including Mount Isa Copper Operations, has a rich history and for generations, Australian miners have considering working at Mount Isa Mines a rite of passage,” Mr Wilson said.<\/p>\n

“It has been nothing short of remarkable and will be felt for years to come.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ground usually shakes twice a day in Mount Isa \u2014 it has done so for seven decades.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,31085,31087,31086,31089,31091,31088,31092,31090],"class_list":{"0":"post-33846","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-copper-mining","12":"tag-glencore-metals","13":"tag-mine-closure","14":"tag-mining-blasts","15":"tag-mount-isa-copper-mine","16":"tag-mount-isa-history","17":"tag-mount-isa-mining","18":"tag-mount-isa-underground-copper-mine"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}