miners return in droves

Well done to MLX management for getting company to the position it's in today with Renison about to go into production.

Article below Tamania'a Mercury Newspaper shows how positive things are for MLX in Tassie, and takes me back to a thread started by a certain "phosta" on 28/11/08 which contained some very strong statements including:

"But this closure left so much bad baggage behind that it will be difficult to hire labour/contractors for the project. Bluestone tin is not on anyones preffered employer list. That aside there is no reason to think BLuestone is capable of managing ANY enterprise at a profit.....they have stuffed up everything they have touched so far...."

HELEN KEMPTON

June 23, 2008 12:00am
MINERS who fled Tasmania when the local minerals industry stalled are flooding back to take up jobs on the now-booming West Coast.

More than 300 workers have taken up jobs at the Avebury nickel mine, the rejuvenated Renison tin mine at Zeehan and the resurrected Mt Bischoff tin mine at Waratah during the past year.

Most are former Tasmanian miners coming home.

About 200 miners lost their jobs when the Renison mine closed in 2005 and houses in Zeehan emptied as workers left to find jobs in Western Australia and in Queensland.

Today, the multi-million-dollar accommodation complex built by Renison's new owner Metals X is starting to fill and 130 workers are back working at the tin mine.

Another 70 trades and mining jobs are up for grabs at Renison, and Metals X is also mining at its open-cut Mt Bischoff operation.

It employs five workers directly and a contract workforce of 25 does mining, drilling and blasting operations.

"We have been overwhelmed by the number of Tasmanians wanting to come back to work," managing director Duncan Bennett said yesterday.

"Where possible, we try to source employees locally and I estimate 60 per cent of the workforce is Tasmanian."

Other positions are being filled by interstate miners and some from the US, Turkey, the Philippines, the UK, Ireland and New Zealand.

Mr Bennett said Metals X was widening its recruitment sphere by targeting non-traditional labour, with more women heading underground and into operational roles.

The company is also increasing the number of entry-level roles both on the surface and underground and in trades apprenticeships.

"That way, in three years' time and beyond, when some of our other projects come on line, we will have a good skills base to draw from," he said.

The Avebury nickel project near Zeehan has employed 150 workers, from miners to plant operators and specialists such as geologists.

Mining contractor Barminco has 90 miners underground and Allegiance Mining also employs many at the new mine