Australian mayor shares his community’s experience of growth in the ore-rich Pilbara at the OECD conference
The City of Karratha in Western Australia’s Pilbara region is a hive of mining-related activity. Known for its rich iron ore deposits, the region has a population of just over 24,000 people. Karratha alone generates a whopping $20 billion annually in gross domestic product (GDP).
Put in other terms, each person working in the region contributes $375 per hour to the GDP; that’s in comparison to the national average of $56 per hour. “That’s how important our region is to the national economy of Australia,” said Daniel Scott, mayor of the City of Karratha, while speaking in Sudbury this week.
Situated on Australia’s northwestern coast, Karratha has become a kickoff point for much of that region’s mining activity. Its airport is the second busiest regional airport in all of Australia, Scott said, handling 8,500 passengers per day, comprised largely of fly-in, fly-out workers travelling through the region for work.
Over the last decade, brand-new buildings have popped up all through the city — including a AUD$173-million hospital completed in 2021 — thanks to the Royalties for Regions Program, which ensures that 25 per cent of all royalties generated from mining-related activity are reinvested back into the community.
For the rest of this article: industry-news/mining/global-delegates-converge-on-sudbury-to-chart-a-path-forward-in-mining-9642500
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