Question Time

Copper Mining Strategy

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (14:12): My question is to the Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy. Minister, can you update the house on the recently launched Copper Strategy and whether there have been any early outcomes for jobs and growth in the state's resources sector?

Mr Bell: Good Liberal policy: jobs and growth.

The SPEAKER: I call to order the member for Mount Gambier. The Treasurer.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (14:13): Jobs and growth, sir, that's what we are all about. I thank the member for his question and his support not only for the mining sector but of course for the people and children of Whyalla.

South Australia has ambitions to be a major supplier of copper to the world and that has been laid out in the recently released Copper Strategy. South Australia is home to the world's fourth largest copper deposit at Olympic Dam, as well as operating copper mines at Prominent Hill, in the Far North, and Kanmantoo, in the Adelaide Hills.

While these operations continue to support 300,000 tonnes a year of exported copper, South Australia is home to 68 per cent of our nation's known copper resource, and we can do much better. To do that, we must bring forward investment in projects to develop identified deposits and support explorers to discover even more copper to add to our resource inventory. For more than a decade, the Plan for Accelerating Exploration has played a crucial role in supporting survey work that helps identify targets and then provides financial assistance to drilling programs to confirm the existence of potential deposits.

One of PACE's earliest successes was its support for the discovery of the Carrapateena copper and gold deposit north-east of Port Augusta in South Australia's burgeoning copper belt. Building on that initial support, the government has had an early initiative in the design of the Copper Strategy to provide $10 million to support research into a process for improving the levels of copper in concentrate—support that was criticised by the Leader of the Opposition.

The success of that research has provided confidence to OZ Minerals to accelerate its investment in developing the Carrapateena project. This is welcome news for South Australia, as it will not only provide investment and jobs opportunities in the Upper Spencer Gulf during the construction and operation of the mine but it also has the potential to flow through to downstream jobs in the copper treatment process.

OZ Minerals has identified Whyalla as the preferred site for its $150 million copper concentrate treatment plant near the Arrium steelworks—great news for the people of Whyalla.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I can tell that members opposite are complaining about it being in Whyalla, but we make no apology for it at all. The process the state government supported OZ Minerals to develop will be a key component in the proposed Whyalla concentrate treatment plant. Not only will that plant support the development of the Carrapateena project but it also offers an opportunity to improve the efficiency at OZ Minerals' operating mine at Prominent Hill. Of course, there is also potential for that plant to be used by other copper proponents, not just here in South Australia.

OZ Minerals has been invited to apply for major project status for the approval process for the plant, with a two-year construction phase expected to begin in 2017. Once all board and government approvals are in place, OZ Minerals aims to have the Carrapateena mine operating by 2019, employing more than 400 people during a 20-year mine life.

This is the Copper Strategy in a nutshell: government support for exploration and research that leads to discovery and innovation, which in turn supports our regional communities with jobs not just at the mine but in value-adding and processing. We as a government welcome the progress made by OZ Minerals in developing this important research project, and the opportunity it provides to diversify and strengthen the economies of Whyalla—giving its children and its communities opportunities for jobs into the future—as well, of course, as the Upper Spencer Gulf region.

The SPEAKER: Before the leader asks his question, I call to order the members for Schubert and Hartley.