will xstrata make an impact?

mant,

i emailed one of the councillors in mount isa and requested some economic info recently.

this was his reply

Dear David

To assist you, I have sent you the text of a new economic development page currently being put together to go on the council web site. http://www.mountisa.qld.gov.au

Population in Mount Isa has been fairly static for past five years at around 20,000. However since Xstrata has taken over MIM, they have created an extra 1000 jobs and we estimate the current population to be around 23,500 and believe it will continue to climb to reach 25,000 over next thre years. This is merely an estimated projection.

<<MOUNT ISA what’s happening.doc>>

I hope this assists you.

Glen Graham
City Development Officer
Mount Isa City Council

Ph: 07 4747 3227
Fax: 07 4747 3209

mant, if you or anyone else wants the attachment he sent me (4 pages) please email me and id be happy to send it to you. i found it encouraging.

good luck

david

Just recently sold our IP in Mt Isa… and still not convinced it was the right thing to do. Having been born in Mt Isa, Worked for MIM for 6 years till it was bought by Xstrata, whom I now work for, I have a rough idea of how things stand. Mt Isa was the definition of stagnation before Xstrata bought MIM. Property prices went no where, captial appreciation was unknown. HOWEVER, it always had good rental returns due to the fluid population. When Xstrata bought MIM there was a reinvestment into the Mount Isa operation. For the previous 4 years the cathc cry was cut costs. Xstrata came in and changed that to ‘Lets utilize these resources to their upmost’. One of the first things they did was move services from Brisbane to Mt Isa, and employ almost 500 new people (mainly in the support/maintenance area as that’s where people had been removed from previously). This ment a sudden influx of families to Mt Isa. Any half decent property was bought and the rest were rented out. Occupancy rates in Mt Isa are very low. However there is a higher then average turnover. The mines has pretty much stabilised on their new employee levels. However the towns other businesses are still playing catch up to meet the new demand for their services (don’t expect a painter to be able to pop over to your place if it needs a new coat). So the population (I’m assuming) will grow a little more to meet this demand. New land is being released. However land is not really in stortage out there. Just housing and builders. The mines life span (last I heard) was approximately 15-20 years. However there’s a lot still to be explored out there, so don’t think this is an end-date. Mount Isa is also a transport gateway and the only real regional centre in that areas of Western Queensland.

As I said, I’m not certain I did the right thing in selling that property… Seemed like a good idea at the time though.