Sustainability

Ian Macfarlane the Resources Council chief executive of Queensland said a survey of the state’s top resources leaders in May found solid momentum in employment growth over the next 12 months.

“Every resource job matters and our sector is doing the heavy lifting with the state’s employment with 63% of the companies surveyed maintaining or growing workforces while 5% were expecting to increase employment numbers significantly,” he said.

“Queensland’s coal and mineral miners were in a substantially better position going into the COVID-19 crisis than the previous commodity price lows five years ago with 50% of companies expecting operations to remain in the lowest cost quartile and nearly 90% sitting in the bottom half of the cost curve.

“Costs in Queensland’s oil and gas industry have crept higher with all operations remaining in the top half of the cost curve and three quarters in the highest cost quartile.

“Part of the sector’s success was its immediate response to the crisis and its ability to work with all levels of government to protect the public health of the communities in which we operate by strictly adhering to the advice of the state’s Chief Health Officer and implementing further measures.

“More than 70% of our members said the Queensland government had performed well or exceptionally well when compared to other Australian jurisdictions and when compared to international jurisdictions 83% said the government had performed well or exceptionally well.

“Concerns weighing on the sector include contractions in the global economy, raising capital and the health impacts of the coronavirus around the world.