Sadly we have another announcement on our front page about more job loses in the local mining industry. One would like to hope that we don’t have to publish too many more stories on job loses but that may not be the case.
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The Australian dollar remains stubbornly high and coal prices are languishing at near or below production costs. And its not only coal prices that are taking a hammering with iron ore prices also affected.
In the past companies like Rio Tinto and BHP Biliton who operate both coal and iron ore mines may have been able to ride out a slump in one industry thanks to stronger returns in the other. But that is not the case today.
Apart from the dollar and lower prices Australia also has high production costs and that makes us less competitive in these tough times.
The boom times are well and truly over.Now we must look to diversify our economy and find innovative ways to grow our labour force.
Those about to enter the workforce for the first time start planning for a job not only in mining. Think about education and training.