CANBERRA (Scrap Monster): Andrew Powell, the Environment Minister, announced yesterday that, the government is planning to extend the life of the Glencore owned copper smelter Mount Isa Mines copper smelter.

 

He stated that, a small change in the legislatures of the Environment act, can add an extra four years into the life of the smelter, and also save 1000 mining jobs along with it in the Mount Isa, and also in Townsville.

 

He added that, the government had planned out a decision, which ensure the environmental issues in Mount Isa and Townsville, and also secures the jobs of  the current employees and also the future generation.

 

He stated that, the government is basically acknowledging, what Glencore had done to ensure the environmental safety for the last three years, to make environmental gains in the country. The government plans to provide the company with environmental approval, in order to identify and also to concrete in that status, and this will also allow the company to move forward with certainty.

 

In order to meet with the requirement of the current Environmental Act, the Mount Isa Mines will need to halt all the operations at the company’s mining smelter by the end of the year 2016. Chris McGrath, the environmental law professor at the University of Queensland, stated that, Glencore used to operate under the special environmental legislation, and is still trying to make the transition with the modern regulations.

 

When the country’s modern environmental laws were published in the year 1990 in Queensland a huge number of operations had transitional provisions which allowed the company to come up to speed, and that’s what the government is talking about, basically its just extending but it is true that the transitional situation had been up there for a while.