Author: Samantha Bawden

The Pilbara may see its first worker strike in decades as part of a major push from unions to re-enter the region. This week, the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) said it had applied for a protected action ballot covering 60 BHP (ASX: BHP) high-voltage workers — which the union says would mark the first industrial action at a major mining company in the Pilbara since the Fair Work Act took effect in 2009.The ballot follows a year of protracted negotiations between the employees and the company. The ETU says BHP workers are seeking their first workplace agreement, having been employed on disparate common-law contracts over the past two decades, with variance of more than 30% between people doing the same work.    ETU WA secretary Adam Woodage says the workers do an extraordinary job in tough conditions and remote locations. “For decades their employer has maintained a system of playing them off against one another with unequal individual contracts that provide no certainty or transparency, and place enormous power in the hands of individual managers to build empires through favouritism,” he said.  “ thought that the days of their employees taking industrial action in the Pilbara were history. They were wrong.”    These BHP workers are not the only ones pushing for change in the Pilbara. In February 2025, Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) workers launched a majority support petition to initiate bargaining at the company’s Paraburdoo iron ore operations. The Mining and Energy Union (MEU) says the petition was an initiative of the Western Mine Workers Alliance (WMWA), a joint venture of the MEU and the Australian Workers Union. MEU iron ore train drivers have also been part of the broader reunionisation push throughout the Pilbara, securing improved agreements with both Rio Tinto and BHP.   The BHP ballot marks a new phase in the push to rebuild union presence in the Pilbara — a region historically associated with militant unionism. During the 1970s, workers spent an average of more than 10 days a year on strike, according to the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA).  The decline of union power throughout the Pilbara began in the 1980s when mining company Peko-Wallsend moved against entrenched union work practises and agreements at the Robe River mine. By the 1990s and through the mining boom of the 2000s, the region was a union wasteland. The introduction of the Federal Government's Closing Loopholes reforms, enacted through the 2023 and 2024 Acts, represented a significant re-orientation of Australia’s workplace relations system and a major opportunity for unions across the country. According to the Australian Resources and Energy Employer Association (AREEA) the reforms shifted the balance away from enterprise-based negotiation, commercial certainty and clear workforce boundaries, and toward expanded arbitration, increased union leverage and greater regulatory discretion. As part of the reforms, new Same Job, Same Pay provisions were introduced into the Fair Work Act to ensure labour hire employees were paid at least the same as employees who are directly hired and are doing the same job. The ruling meant that more than 2000 labour hire workers at BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) coal mines in Queensland were set to receive significant pay rises.  BHP challenged the ruling in the Federal Court, as it would affect workers at its Goonyella Riverside, Peak Downs and Saraji coal operations in Queensland, but the Full Federal Court upheld the FWC’s decision in December 2025. BHP has since sought special leave to escalate its challenge to the High Court. The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) is now advocating for the Same Job, Same Pay policy to cover additional employment conditions and to narrow the service contractor exemption — changes AREEA says would dramatically?expand the regime beyond what Australians were originally told it would do. AREEA chief executive Steve Knott AM says the Federal Government repeatedly assured the community that its policy would be limited to arrangements where labour hire was purportedly being used to undermine wage rates in certain workplaces. “This is no longer about ‘same job same pay’ for labour hire workers — it’s about the ACTU’s fantasy of creating ‘same employment package for everyone’, with no regard for how major projects and complex multi-employer workplaces actually operate,” he said. AREEA is concerned the push to broaden the regime ignored the well-established role of specialist contractors across Australia’s resources and energy sector.“Major LNG, mining and energy projects rely on specialist contractors delivering defined scopes of work such as maintenance, engineering and shutdown services,” Mr Knott said. “These are specialist service businesses performing defined work — they are not labour hire providers. “If unions succeed in collapsing that distinction, the FWC will effectively be asked to reshape how entire industries organise and contract work.“If Australia becomes a more expensive and inflexible place to deliver major projects, investment will simply flow to other jurisdictions — and the jobs will go with it.” 

Workers at Glencore’s refinery in Townsville have threatened to walk off the job this Friday if wage negotiations remain unresolved.Negotiations for a new enterprise agreement (EA) started March 25 last year before stalling amid uncertainty around the July 2025 closure of Mount Isa’s underground copper operations. Talks later resumed after the Federal and Queensland Government committed $600m to continue operations at the smelter and support its workers.This week, the Australian Workers Union (AWU) gave notice that members will be partaking in protected industrial action if the issues are not settled at a bargaining meeting scheduled for tomorrow.AWU northern district secretary Jim Wilson says Glencore is paying workers almost 15% less than neighbouring sites for the same work.“It’s simply unacceptable,” he said.“The Townsville community is sick of billionaires profiting from our town and leaving nothing but the crumbs for workers and their families.”The Queensland Electrical Trades Union (ETU) says across three EA meetings held since the bailout announcement, Glencore failed to make any meaningful movement.A Glencore spokesperson says the company has been engaging with copper refinery workers about the new EA for more than 12 months.“Glencore has tabled a competitive package which includes a salary increase over four years and we will continue to negotiate in good faith to get an agreement,” they said.“Despite securing a government funding package last year, the refinery is expected to continue losing money.“This political grandstanding from the unions is not helpful and undermines the constructive engagement to date with local EA bargaining representatives.”According to ETU, Glencore was offering wage increases of 6.9-10.4% across four years based on individual performance at the discretion of the company, saying this fell behind rising living costs and citing Australia’s consumer price index (CPI) of 3.8% per annum.Glencore publicly rejected these comments, reporting it tabled a 13% salary increase across four years.AWU Queensland secretary Stacey Schinnerl says the wage offer that Glencore has put on the table doesn’t meet the rising cost of living pressures faced by workers and their families.“We have a bargaining meeting on Thursday where we hope Glencore will finally come to the table to sort this out. The message to Glencore is clear, we won’t accept you short-changing our members.”

Dyno Nobel (ASX: DNL) has sold it Phosphate Hill site in north west Queensland to Mayfair Corporation for an initial purchase price of $1 and a deferred consideration of up to $100m.Dyno Nobel had previously said that if a sale was not completed by March 31, it would progress cease operations at Phosphate Hill by 30 September 2026.This announcement came after the company reported a $149.1m after-tax impairment on the asset last year.Located 140km south east of Mount Isa, Phosphate Hill’s acid plant is critical to operations at Glencore’s Mount Isa copper smelter and its closure would significantly affect smelter operations.Sulphur dioxide produced as a byproduct at Mount Isa is processed into sulphuric acid, which is then sent to Phosphate Hill for fertiliser production.Queensland Natural resources and Mines Minister Dale Last says recent geopolitical events have reinforced the importance of protecting Queensland’s sovereign fertiliser manufacturing capability.“These assets are too important to our agricultural sector, our supply chains and our economic security to take for granted,” he said.The symbiotic relationship between Phosphate Hill and the Mount Isa smelter supports more than 1000 jobs across the region, according to the Queensland Government.Dyno Nobel chief executive and managing director Mauro Neves says the sale is an important milestone that concludes the company’s separation from the fertiliser business.“I am very pleased that our talented teams in Phosphate Hill, Mount Isa and Townsville will continue to provide Australian farmers with a secure domestic source of fertilisers supply,” he said.Mayfair will assume ownership of the Phosphate Hill operations from April 1. The privately held Australian energy and resources company currently operates the Top Camp gold project in Cloncurry, about 150km north of the Phosphate Hill site.

Researchers from CSIRO and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have successfully demonstrated a viable approach to reduce emissions from steelmaking by partially replacing coal with agricultural waste.The breakthrough offers a scalable pathway to commercial use and cutting emissions in one of the world’s fastest growing industrial economies, marking a major advance in efforts to decarbonise iron and steelmaking.Using locally sourced rice husk pellets, the CSIRO team validated sustained production of biomass-derived synthesis gas for iron ore reduction at a large-scale commercial steelworks in India.The trial was completed in partnership with commercial steel innovator RESCONS Solutions.India’s steel sector is the fastest-growing globally, projected to double its capacity to 300mt by 2030 and reach 500mt by 2047. This rapid expansion poses a major challenge for global emissions, with India’s steel production emitting an average of 2.55t of carbon dioxide per tonne of steel — well above the global average of 1.85-1.92t, according to World Steel.The sector is responsible for about 12% of India’s total emissions.To address these challenges, the Indian Ministry of Steel has outlined a roadmap to achieve net zero emissions by 2070, including strategies such as transitioning to electric arc furnaces, increasing scrap use, carbon capture and storage, green hydrogen and using biomass as a replacement for coal.Leveraging India’s abundant agricultural waste, the CSIRO-led team, with funding from the Federal Government’s India-Australia green steel research partnership, conducted a full-scale trial at Jindal Steel in Odisha. The team successfully blended 5% and 10% rice husk pellets into Jindal Steel gasifiers, achieving sustained syngas production with no loss of performance.CSIRO senior experimental scientist Warren Flentje says the trial is a world-first demonstration of how agricultural waste can be harnessed to decarbonise steelmaking at scale.“By blending rice husk pellets into commercial gasifiers, we’ve shown that biomass can replace coal without compromising performance,” he said.“This is a major step forward for sustainable steel production in India and globally.”If adopted across India, the process could reduce steel sector emissions by up to 50% totalling about 357mtpa of carbon dioxide.Building on this success, the team will expand their work to include smaller-scale regional steelmaking facilities and a wider range of biomass sources, including integrated systems that produce both food and steel feed.Jindal Steel executive director Damodar Mittal says the collaboration marks a pivotal moment in India’s journey towards decarbonisation.“By integrating green energy and biomass into our production processes, we are not only reducing our carbon footprint but also setting a new benchmark for the Indian steel industry,” he said.Air quality is a major health issue in India, with more than 30,000 deaths annually linked to poor air quality, with much of it caused by in-field burning of crop residues.This pioneering work by CSIRO and its Indian partners could fast-track the adoption of biomass for steelmaking, delivering major emissions reductions, improving air quality and supporting regional economic development in India.CSIRO green metals production research group leader Keith Vining says the trial has demonstrated that biomass can be a viable alternative to coal, especially in regional areas where surplus agri-waste and coal DRI facilities co-exist.“The next phase will focus on increasing biomass replacement rates and assessing impacts on the direct reduction process,” he said.

In the Australian resources sector, women now represent a larger portion of roles as companies make progress to lower representation and wage disparities.Though significant progress has been made in recent years, there is still major room for growth with the percentage of women holding roles in the mining sector fluctuating between 22 - 23% since 2024, according to the Federal Government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA).Though progress across the board leaves a lot to be desired, there are a few companies that stand out as leaders in creating gender equality.In April 2025, BHP (ASX: BHP) reported 40% female representation in its global employee workforce — a world-first for a global listed mining company.Recent figures from Fortescue (ASX: FMG) show that 39% of senior leadership roles are held by women and an overall 25.1% female employment rate.At IGO (ASX: IGO), women hold the majority of board seats, accounting for 57% of members — well above the industry average of 24%.Lynas (ASX: LYC) chief executive Amanda Lacaze remains the only women to lead an Australian-based ASX-listed mining company, though she has announced plans to step down by the end of FY26.Natascha Viljoen was recently promoted to chief executive of US-based gold giant Newmont Corporation (ASX: NEM).Safety extends beyond physical protectionAustralia’s mining sector has made progress towards creating safer, more respectful and inclusive cultures.However, according to the Australian Human Right’s Commission’s 2022 survey, the mining industry holds the fifth highest incidence rate of workplace sexual harassment and one in three workers having experienced sexual harassment in the last five years.This is a safety issue.The extent of sexual harassment and bullying directed toward female FIFO workers in the mining sector was exposed in 2022 when the?WA Parliament published its landmark Enough is Enough report.The inquiry focused on the extent, nature and reporting of sexual harassment in FIFO workplaces and the workplace culture across the mining industry.The inquiry found that sexual harassment and assault were not being appropriately managed through failure of companies to report known incidents, fear of repercussions on those reporting incidents, limited or ineffective training across industry and a significant gender imbalance across the mining sector workforce.Responding to the 2022 inquiry, Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King called for the sector to step up and take action.“Female workers need to know they are safe at work, and that they have the right to have rewarding careers in the mining industry without being subjected to sexual harassment and assault,” she said.“Any case of sexual harassment is one too many. Sadly, the inquiry has found that sexual harassment and assaults are much too common for women who choose to work in the FIFO workforce.”As a result, a spotlight was placed on the adequacy of existing workplace practices and policies in protecting workers against harassment, assault and other psychosocial risks.In the same year, Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) conducted an independent internal review of its operations and found 28% of its female workforce had experience workplace sexual harassment.As part of the independent review, several anonymous workers shared their lived experience.“I do believe Rio Tinto has made much progress, however there is still more to be done,” said one female operational manager.“There are some key areas. belief that women in senior roles are only there due to positive discrimination,” she said.“ perceived (perhaps) actual discrimination against mothers and expectant mothers…Despite my credentials, I have been called a token woman and treated that way as well.“I have had my opinions negated and I have many experiences challenged.”Building a respectful, supportive and high-performance culture remains integral to addressing the issues highlighted by this inquiry.Rio Tinto says it is making active efforts to drive this shift, including implementing respectful behaviour training modules and driving company-wide initiatives to create change.In response to the independent review finding, Rio created the Everyday Respect taskforce to implement the 26 recommendations to create a safe, respectful and inclusive workplace.Two years after releasing the initial report, Rio conducted a progress review which reported change is happening and progress is being made.Closing the gender wage gapAccording to the WGEA, the gender pay gap across the Australian mining sector is the third largest in the country.Gender pay gaps are the result of imbalances in gender composition and remuneration across the organisation.The gender pay gap is not the same as equal pay which has been the legal requirement in Australia since 1969 which ensure both men and women are paid the same for performing the same role.While progress has been made, work is still ongoing. Across most Australian operations, the average and median earnings of women remain lower than those of men.Figures vary significantly across companies. In 2025, Rio Tinto’s equal pay gap was less than 1.5% in favour of men while IGO, in FY24, reported a 10.7% gap in favour of men.PLS, recognising the need to drive further progress, reported a 14.1% gap in average total remuneration in favour of men as part of its Gender pay equality statement 2026.The company’s recent gender pay gap results are primarily influenced by structural factors and gender representation patterns across the workforce, rather than unexplained differences in pay for equivalent work.PLS reports that it is actively addressing these structural representation factors as part of its efforts to increase female participation and drive an absolute improvement in its gender pay gap.According to WGEA’s 2026 figures, 54.8% of employers across Australia reduced their average total remuneration gender pay gap year-on-year and 52.3% of employers reduced their median total remuneration gender pay gap year-on year.Encouraging future generationsThere are many initiatives across Australia, from both the private and public sectors, encouraging young women to take up careers in the mining sector.One such program is the Queensland Resource Council’s (QRC) girls in resources leadership skills (GIRLS) mentoring program. The program’s 2026 rendition saw twenty Year 12 students and their resources industry mentors gathering in Brisbane from across broader Queensland.Students travelled from 16 schools for the launch of the mentoring program and to meet their experienced industry mentors including geologists, engineers and experienced tradespeople.The popular program, now in its eighth year, has helped connect more than 120 students with the minerals and energy sector, with many alumni going on to carve out successful careers in the sector.QRC chief executive Janette Hewson says the mentors and their mentees will take part in a scaffolded and mentoring partnership over the next six months, supported by organisational psychologists."These young women will get expert guidance and advice from their mentors, who work in the fields they are aspiring to enter,” she said.GIRLS is a joint initiative between the Queensland Minerals and Energy Academy (QMEA) and Women in Mining and Resources Queensland (WMARQ).WIMARQ co-chair Catherine Cook says GIRLS was designed to assist young women keen to follow a STEM or trades career in the resources industry.“By the end of this six-month program the students will be filled with knowledge and confidence about potential careers in mining and energy,” she said.Today, QRC is also hosting the 2026 Resource Awards for Women to celebrate the exceptional achievements of women across the state’s resources sector.There are 20 finalists, including include field and trade supervisors, safety leaders, value analysts, diversity champions and executives, competing for seven prestigious awards.

Australia and Canada have signed a series of agreements regarding critical minerals, one of which grants Australia membership to the G7 minerals alliance.This week, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, marking the first bilateral visit of a Canadian Prime Minister to Australia in nearly two decades, and outlined a series of partnerships between the nations in investment, defence and security, critical minerals, energy and artificial intelligence.Noting Australia and Canada’s combined strengths as major global critical minerals producers, both leaders committed to working more purposefully in partnership to advance mutual interests and build dynamic global critical minerals supply chains.The countries also committed to pursuing common positions on key critical minerals issues and to collaborate on shaping emerging markets in ways that reflect shared commitment to fair and open trade as well as high environmental and labour standards.This builds on the joint declaration of intent on critical minerals cooperation, signed by both countries in November last year, designed to strengthen supply chain resilience.During the visit, Canada welcomed Australia into the Critical Minerals Production Alliance — an initiative launched under Canada’s G7 presidency in 2025 to expand critical minerals production and processing capacity and diversify supply chains from mine to market.“We're looking forward to learning from … cooperating in strategic areas, such as critical minerals and financial services, where we are quiet powerhouses in and of ourselves,” Prime Minister Carney said.As part of the agreements, both nations will develop a Canada-Australia mining skills exchange pilot, in collaboration with industry stakeholders, academic institutions and government partners to address skills and labour shortages and ensure allied ability to expand critical minerals production.Minerals Council Australia chief executive Tania Constable says the agreements mark a new era in Australia and Canada’s enduring partnership.“We have a long history of prosperity for our people and communities being generated by a range of minerals, including traditional resources and most recently the addition of critical minerals that power the world and make modern life possible including telecommunications, health and defence,” she said.Recognising the significant security challenges associated with increasing geopolitical issues, Canada and Australia also agreed to enhance defence and security cooperation, including through the establishment of a biennial defence ministers’ meeting.“Our two nations share values. We share common interests as well,” Prime Minister Albanese said.“ shared ambition for Australia and Canada to do more together, at a deeper level. To build on our shared strengths, from our resources and critical minerals to defence technology.”