Rio Tinto names Shell’s Katie Jackson as new copper chief
Jackson, who is the current president of National Grid Ventures, an energy group, joins Rio Tinto on September 1.
A new study by research company BIS Shrapnel predicts big winners and big losers for the Australian mining industry.
Australia’s number one metals and minerals customer China is experiencing a marked economic slowdown and Australian giants like Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) and BHP Billiton (LON:BHP) are cutting back on large capex projects and taking a sledgehammer to costs.
The Brisbane Times quotes BIS Shrapnel Infrastructure and mining unit senior manager Adrian Hart as saying Australian mining would “continue to be challenged by lower commodity prices and a high Australian dollar:”
“As such, they are going to extraordinary lengths to cut back on the high costs/low productivity culture which characterised the construction phase of the [mining] boom,” Mr Hart said.
“With respect to the mining boom, it’s probably fair to say that this is not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning.”
As a result BIS Shrapnel predicts there will be a 40% decline in construction positions even as overall employment ticks up 11% over the next five years.
Another study released last week by Business Monitor also forecasts moderating growth from the breakneck pace of the previous decade.
Business Monitor predicts the value of Australia’s mining sector to reach $181 billion by 2017, growing at an annual average rate of 4.3% over the forecast period.
4 Comments
Criticism
@Editor, How can I understand this double “predicts” in this sentence? A new study by research company BIS Shrapnel predicts predicts big winners and big losers for the Australian mining industry.
MINING.com Editors
Thanks for your criticism, Criticism (see what I did there?). It was a typo; now fixed.
pedro juan somewhat
The desk jockies do not know what they are talking about when they bag the construction culture.
i worked on the sino iron ore site and the blow out was due to poor inventory management, in fact citipacific mining needed a Australian workforce to complete that prototype mine to world class standard. I was the safety for one of the engineering companies that did a fair amount of work on that mine and i can testify the blokes did there 12 hour days in 35 to 40 degree plus heat with no serious incidents. That costs money. OR you can have the standard of the hollow piers where the 14 story building collapsed in china when they tried to put in a underground car park. When these twits speak of high cost culture they have no idea what they are talking about. The job gets done right the first time with minimal incidents by a world class professional workforce.
Backsafe Australia
Different Predictions, Varied Statements, Enormous Claims..!!
Economic development of Australia is majorly dependent on Mining , is the future safe ?
These are assumptions only or valid claims..