THE WA Chamber of Minerals and Energy (CMEWA) will today host the first crisis meeting among WA’s biggest resource companies to coordinate a response to the risk of coronavirus affecting the State’s mine sites and regional and remote areas.

The mining industry is aiming for a unified position should a worker test positive or an outbreak occur at one of the sites, without the risk of government quarantining entire camps or suspending lucrative operations.

The meeting will be attended by senior representatives from the WA Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS), industry associations and large mining companies.

Other attendees include the WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies, the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association, Chevron, Woodside Petroleum, BHP, Rio Tinto, Fortescue Metals Group and Roy Hill.

WA has about 60,000 fly-in, fly-out workers running the State’s mine sites and oil and gas facilities, with some residing and holidaying in regions affected by the virus during roster breaks.

A Fortescue worker at its Christmas Creek mine was recently tested for coronavirus and given the all-clear.

 

There have been more than 97,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and more than 3300 reported deaths globally, according to the Australian Government Department of Health.

Australia has 59 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with one death in WA and another in NSW.

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