Advertisement

Whyalla mineral plant plan scrapped

South Australia has been dealt another blow on the jobs front after a massive mineral processing plant planned for Whyalla was scrapped.

Arafura Resources had promised Whyalla a rare earth mineral processing plant, which was to create 1000 jobs and economic spin-offs worth an estimated $100 million a year, but the company pulled the plug on the project this morning.

It will build the plant in the Northern Territory instead.

Whyalla mayor Jim Pollock said the community was disappointed.

“We held very high hopes for that development proceeding right through to commissioning stage, and it would have been the silver bullet, I think, for this community.”

The announcement is another devastating blow for the South Australian mining sector, following the shelving of the Olympic Dam expansion.

“The Government has over-spruiked what we, the taxpayers of South Australia, are going to get from these investments,” Opposition leader Steven Marshall said.

Acting Mineral Resources Minister Jack Snelling said: “Of course it’s a disappointment, but the world price for rare earth is not something the State Government have any control over.”

But the announcement may come as no surprise after CommSec’s latest State if the State report.

It shows the Northern Territory’s economy is booming, up 44 per cent averaged over a decade, with Western Australia and states on the east not far behind.

But South Australia and Tasmania were named as the only underperformers, with economic growth up by just 10 per cent over the same period.