Queensland - Open for business

"Queensland is open for business". These were the parting words of Queensland's Premier, Anna Bligh, at yesterday's Queensland Resource Council's (QRC) annual lunch.

The fantastic event began with a forum hosted by ABC'sAlan Kohler and boasted a panel that included industry leaders. Discussing the issues that are effecting the mining & resources industry were outgoing CEO of Ensham Resources , John Pegler, Macarthur Coal Chief & new the new president of QRC (replacing John Pegler), Nicole Hollows, Steve de Kruijff of Xstrata Copper, Andrew Gillies, MD of Metallica Minerals and Rick Wilkinson of Santos.

These distinguished leaders and members of the audience discussed many different topics including the global economic situation and predictions for the future, infrastructure constraints, rail costs & opportunities for improvement, greenhouse gas emissions and clean coal technology. One issue that was raised that really caught my attention was the increased length of time it takes to get a project off the ground from what it did 10 years ago. Nicole Hollows highlighted this with the illustration of Coppabella minegoing from complete greenfields to operational in 15 months (if my memory serves me correctly) and the average time for a project to become operational nowadays is 3-4 years at a minimum. This delay combined with the uncertainty of commodity prices, along with the risk of debt and commitment required by rail and port make it all the more difficult for up and coming miners to start a new operation. One common theme among all the presenters was the focus on using this down time to build infrastructure to be prepared for the next boom.

After the forum wound up all 900 attendees made their way into the main dining hall and enjoyed a wonderful lunch. Anna Bligh then presented to us and painted a picture that was aimed to inspire confidence within the resources sector. Anna Bligh highlighted that In light of recent global events, to ensure the resources sector moves forward the government is concentrating on infrastructure so when the new boom kicks in there will be no bottlenecking. This was a lead-up to the highlight of the event; the announcement that Wiggins Island Coal Terminal Pty Ltd would get preferred status for new infrastructure projects and funding would come through by the end of next year .She also indicated that $36 Billion would be spent on infrastructure between now and 20015.

Overall it was a great event and one that I found informative and fun.