Mount Isa turns to wind, solar and gravity storage to save city as big mines close

The outback mining hub Mount Isa is making a pitch to become a centre for green energy and critical minerals, in a multi-billion roadmap that could see multiple gigawatts of wind and solar and its disused underground mines turned into gravity storage hubs.

The Mount Isa Future Ready Economy is designed to offer a future for a town that is facing 1,200 job losses from the closure of the Glencore mining operations, which threatens the viability of a city of roughly 19,000 people.

The roadmap lists 28 pathways and nearly 400 potential actions for local stakeholders, industry, government and community to shore-up the town’s economy by taking advantage of its still-significant geological assets and the potential from an estimated $680 billion in in-ground resources as of 2020.

The new roadmap was prepared with the help of The Next Economy, an NGO that supports communities in economic transition as a result of decarbonisation. The charity has also supported the Gladstone Regional Council, also in Queensland, and Hay and Carrathool Shires in New South Wales.

“The economic roadmap that we’re launching this week starts to define what the future of Mount Isa’s economy could look like,” said Chad King, Mount Isa Council’s Community Services Director. “We’re at the heart of the North West Minerals Province… We have a huge capability in mining and mining support, as well as being a regional hub.

The roadmap’s key pathways include: 

– Selling minerals key to global decarbonisation, including cobalt, graphite, vanadium, rare earth elements and copper – all of which are found in the region.

– Producing and storing renewable energy using ‘gravitational energy storage’, working with company Green Gravity which uses repurposed mines to store energy (more on that later).

– Completing the CopperString 2032 project, involving 840 kms of transmission lines between Mount Isa and Townsville, and a further 200 kms connecting new wind and solar projects to the grid.

The north-west region could be host to multiple gigawatts of large scale wind and solar, and some nearby operations – as the Dugald River zinc mine, one of the world’s largest, already sources one third of its power from the nearby 88 MW solar farm and has recently upgraded plans for a 144 MW wind project next to the mine, as well as a big battery.

MMG, the mine owner, says the future of its mining operations will depend on its ability to source low cost wind and solar. The cost of gas has been crippling local mining operations in recent years.

Australian company Green Gravity proposes ‘gravitational energy storage’ system, using large masses vertically in disused mine shafts to capture and release renewable energy.

The captured energy is used to haul weights upwards. When the energy is needed, the weight can be dropped back down, much in the same way that a pumped hydro storage facility works.

Mount Isa Mayor Peta MacRae says there is no time to lose in the transition.

“When Glencore made the announcement of closing the underground copper mine last year, we had already started the process with The Next Economy at looking at how we could decarbonise to set ourselves up for the future,” said MacRae. 

“We probably started that process a little bit too late to be honest, we probably should have looked at diversifying and transforming our economy a long time ago.”

As part of their announcement, the Council has called on the Queensland and Federal Governments to support their roadmap with major investment and support.

“Bold assistance from the state and federal governments is needed for Mount Isa to remain a great place to live, work and do business,” said MacRae.

“This roadmap’s coming at a really critical time, not just for Mount Isa but actually mining towns around Australia that we’ve been talking to that are also dealing with very similar challenges,” said The Next Economy CEO Amanda Cahill.

“Places like the Upper Spencer Gulf, the Pilbara, long-term mining towns that have generated a lot of value for Australia and underpin our export revenue.

“They’re also places that need a lot of investment in what the next generation of mining is going to look like.”

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