The battle for mineral riches just got a whole lot more interesting this week!
In Queensland, an Indian billionaire bought a cattle station and found himself with a behemoth of a coal mine then caused mayhem amongst the conservative right when he suggested the 'fly-in-fly-out' concept was going to go international and he'd supply his own workforce!
And in New South Wales the O'Farrell Government put all its hopes on a uranium-based economic recovery, when it lifted a 26-year ban on exploration.
In a translation of the official comment on the state-turnaround to support a toe-in-the-water to uranium mining, the State Government said it wanted to get on board the mineral boom and help pay for essential infrastructure in the ailing state, through a robust mineral-led economy. In other words – "everybody else is doing it, why can't we??"
The decision was without surprise for the many in the industry - and the pioneer mining town, Broken Hill, which time and time has been described as on 'it's last legs' in the search for minerals, again floated toward a rebirth in what many expect will be the first port of call for the early explorers unleashed by O'Farrell and friends.
It's not often in the modern world that we of the old mining cities witness 'a rush', but the O'Farrell Cabinet decision last night to gather as much data as possible on where the big uranium deposits might be – was like a gunshot in Ballarat in the 1800's!
Hold onto your hats Broken Hill...with rich deposits already being extracted just across the South Australian border – there's an exploration team or ten, coming to town! And it won't be long...
