{"id":758968,"date":"2026-06-25T08:30:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T08:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/758968\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T08:30:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T08:30:21","slug":"kalbarri-braces-for-economic-shock-as-chris-ellisons-minres-shutters-lucky-bay-garnet-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/758968\/","title":{"rendered":"Kalbarri braces for economic shock as Chris Ellison’s MinRes shutters Lucky Bay garnet mine"},"content":{"rendered":"

A small coastal community in Western Australia’s Midwest is bracing for economic shock, as a mine closure is set to cost more than 100 jobs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mineral Resources (MinRes) has confirmed it will close its Lucky Bay garnet project near Kalbarri, about 600 kilometres north of Perth, from next week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Garnet is a hard mineral primarily used as an industrial abrasive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Citing increased diesel costs and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, MinRes said a “strategic review” had found it was in its best interests to put the mine into care and maintenance from July 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Chris Ellison-led company was the biggest single employer in the Kalbarri community, alongside another nearby garnet operation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/p>\n

Lucky Bay is south of Kalbarri in WA’s Midwest region. (ABC Midwest Wheatbelt: Samille Mitchell)<\/p>\n

Shire of Northampton chief executive Andrew Campbell said the sudden shuttering would be a significant blow to retail and hospitality businesses, particularly if the job losses forced people to leave town.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It is very significant, 110 jobs. Whilst not all employees lived in the district, the majority would, and Kalbarri will be severely impacted by this closure,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It will have an immediate effect on the individuals, but those employees would have families as well, so it is likely to have a very significant short-term impact.<\/p>\n

“The flow-on effects of that in terms of the retail and commercial sector are likely to be quite huge.<\/p>\n

“I think once [the Kalbarri community] overcomes the shock, it will be a pretty sombre mood.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Viewing<\/p>\n

Kalbarri is a tourist hot spot, but has a population of about 3,500 and limited job opportunities. (ABC Midwest and Wheatbelt: Samille Mitchell)<\/p>\n

In a statement to the ASX, MinRes said it would offer redeployment opportunities to employees impacted by the closure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The mine’s financial performance has been materially impacted by ongoing conflict in the Middle East, a region representing a significant proportion of Lucky Bay’s sales,” the statement said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“MinRes will assess all options for Lucky Bay’s future, including a potential divestment.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The company said it would declare a $40 million loss in its upcoming accounts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The closure comes less than a year after Mineral Resources acquired the Lucky Bay garnet operation from the administrators of Resource Development Group.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There was some degree of hope that Mineral Resources could get the operation going again,” Mr Campbell said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“But that doesn’t seem to be the case.”\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A small coastal community in Western Australia’s Midwest is bracing for economic shock, as a mine closure is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":758969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,362745,260914,245765,362747,31086,54519,362746,101159,362744,167111],"class_list":["post-758968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-chris-ellison","tag-diesel-prices","tag-kalbarri","tag-lucky-bay-garnett-mine","tag-mine-closure","tag-mineral-resources","tag-mineral-resources-jobs","tag-mining-jobs","tag-minres","tag-wa-mining"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758968","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=758968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}