Newsroom

September 16, 2025

The Mount Isa Copper Smelter remains hanging in the balance, with the Queensland government seeming to tacitly sit on the sidelines, the Member for Traeger and Leader of the Katter’s Australian Party, Robbie Katter has said.

“It really worries me that all we are seeing and hearing is the Government in Queensland saying, ‘Glencore should be good citizens because Mount Isa has been good to Glencore’,” Mr Katter said.

“That just doesn’t cut it,” he said.

Harmony’s Eva Copper released modelling showing the mine is poised to deliver $16 billion in State Domestic Product to Queensland if they can get started.

“The Eva copper mine is set to be one of Australia’s biggest producers of copper the stuff the world desperately is chasing, yet without a power price from CopperString, and regional smelting capacity, it’s all up in the air!” Mr Katter said.

“There’s $16 Billion on the line here but all I see are half baked tinkering around the edges on tax, and insipid arguments around corporate benevolence,” the KAP leader said.

“It’s accepted that the concept of shared equity in our nationally significant infrastructure is palatable from all sides, yet I fear the bureaucrats will yet again drag ministers by the ear and tell them that short sighted cash injections are the only way to go.

“We once had a country that was led by leaders, not faceless economic rationalist bean counters.

“The Premier and his Mines minister will say what they think are tough words in front of a camera, but when it comes to global commodity behemoths like Glencore, the only way to engage is fiercely around the negotiating table,” Mr Katter said.

The member for Traeger today told the Meeting of the Mines in Cloncurry that it was back in 2007 that the government released their plan for the North, including the need for affordable power and ability to realise our natural resources.

“Nearly 20 years and many reports later has passed, and the dial has barely shifted.  We still need affordable power, and we’re still hamstrung by fundamentally dysfunctional policy settings,” Mr Katter said.

“Governments have been all talk, and it’s high time they had a crack.

“The Mount Isa smelter must not be let to close because of the Queensland government’s lack of drive to put their shoulder to the wheel and drive an outcome alongside the Federal government.  

“They simply cannot sit back and look on in hope from the side.  

“It’s high time our leaders grew a backbone and stood up for the future of Queensland not curtail to ‘always say no’ bureaucrats and global commodity traders.

“Reform the smelter, build CopperString.  Now,” Mr Katter said.