Glencore has no plan to stop FIFO despite local ad...

coronavirus,

Glencore has no immediate plans of halting its FIFO operations to mining communities of Mount Isa and Cloncurry, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 cases are beginning to stretch to regional areas of Queensland, with locals questioning the hazard that FIFO could put on mining communities. Glencore said the Federal Government had identified mining activities as essential. "We are continuing to work very hard to operate in a safe and responsible manner which will support locals jobs and our community," a Glencore spokesperson said. "We will continue to support and provide further updates on COVID-19 to our workforce, and implement the actions in our local response plans as the situation evolves." READ ALSO: As of Monday March 23, there were no cases of COVID-19 within Glencore's Copper and Zinc businesses. "Glencore is responding to COVID-19 and our key priority is to protect the health and well-being of our workforce and communities," a Glencore spokesperson said. "At both global and local levels, Glencore has engaged specialist external medical expertise to guide our planning and response measures. "We have also activated local response plans and follow ongoing advice from Federal and Queensland Government Health authorities." Local businessman Brett Peterson has been a strong advocate for removing FIFO from the Mount Isa community and believes those who want to work in the industry should live in the industry. "Mount Isa being a powerhouse economy in Queensland, I feel Mount Isa should have been locked down some time ago and we could have got through this together as a community," Mr Peterson said. "This includes fly-in-fly-out, those who are working in the industry must stay locked down here and shut FIFO down. "I understand there are roles including health that are FIFO but if the roles are here,keep them here and make it work." Mr Peterson said there were many locals advocating for this. "Many people are asking for this. The elderly are out most vulnerable and the ones me need to take care of first and locking down community first step in right direction," he said. "There should be a lock down on the whole community including local road transport, with a change over period to goods at the border." Mr Peterson isn't the only advocate for a lock down, with Member for Traeger Robbie Katter calling to quarantine North West Queensland, with policing of roads and strict fever testing at airports. Following a decision Monday by the Queensland Cabinet to close down Queensland borders to inter-state travel, KAP Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter said failing to segregate regional, rural and remote Queensland from the south-east would lead to catastrophe, with 319 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the vast majority of which are confined to the south-east. Mr Katter said only a handful of cases have been confirmed in the North, and the only way to prevent a wide-spread outbreak is intra-state quarantine though freight and essential travel would be excluded. "We need the North and the other regions largely unaffected by COVID-19 quarantined now," Mr Katter said. "It's not something we call for lightly, this is about giving us all a fighting chance." The KAP has proposed a border cut off point from Marlborough in the east to Boulia in the west. READ ALSO: We have removed our paywall from our stories about the coronavirus. This is a rapidly changing situation and we aim to make sure our readers are as informed as possible. If you would like to support our journalists you can subscribe here.

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