This was an article posted on abc website today. With fmg vying for up to nearly 2,000 workers to help fund the new US 1.26B mine at the same time as Rio and BHP with low supply of workers with the required skill set, either a cost blowout will eventuate or it may be put on ice or deferred.
Interesting that fire tail will be depleted within 18 months as well. This new mine is only going to maintain production at current levels.
https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp...g-billions-on-a-new-mine-20180528-p4zhxd.html
In my opinion, it makes Atlas' workforce even more valuable to get hold of.
FMG can use Webber and low cost development of CD as stop gap supply until their new mine is completed. Alternatively forget spending so much on a mine that will only produce 60% grades anyway and use much lower capex to get McPhee Creek DSO off the ground. All 3 of Webber, CD and McPhee are 50% lumps anyway which will fetch a premium in any case.
http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-...rkers-for-new-mining-boom/9959376?pfmredir=sm
Bidding war begins as WA once again searches for workers to fuel a mining boom
Bidding war as projects ramp up
The rapid turnaround in fortunes in the jobs market shows just how much weight the iron ore heavies have when they pull the trigger on new construction.
BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals Group are building new mines — all at the same time. This will require about 6,000 construction workers
While the level of investment does not match the height of the mining boom, everyone deciding to build at the same time is exactly what happened last time, and this tends to lead to a bidding war for workers.
"They're very large projects, they're all underway at the moment and that will really flow through over the next 18 months," Katana Asset Management's Romano Sala Tenna said.
....In Western Australia alone, the number of job ads for mining engineers nearly doubled over the past year to April.
"I think the first area we'll see some shortages is certainly in mining construction jobs, they're quite a specific skills set so you need people who have got that level of expertise and certainly mining engineers as well," Mr Sala Tenna said.....
....So where will the workers come from? Experts agree it will be more challenging this time around. The east coast economies of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland are now booming with their own rail and infrastructure projects....
......During the mining investment boom, nearly 300 mining engineers graduated each year. It was the degree to study, as you were seemingly guaranteed to walk into a job offering a salary of at least $100,000.
But the downturn crushed the confidence of the next wave of students considering which university degree to pursue.
Based on data from eight Australian universities, the number of engineering students set to graduate will fall to 50 a year by 2022, according to the Minerals Council of Australia.....
