BOOM times are a boon for mining town
FNQ in Focus
Mt Carbine is experiencing both a boon and booms thanks the success of the Mt Carbine Mine which is now Australia’s leading tungsten mine and getting bigger.
And the local pub owners Dale Morris and Jane Burns say they are flat out keeping up with the growth and hopeful reinforcements are just around the corner as a new 180-man camp in town is under construction.
“We had planned for this 10 years ago and it is finally here,’’ Dale said.
Dale and Jane left the Mt Carbine Hotel for Dale to work in his electrical trade in Western Australia but was “called back” to take the pub back on a bit over a year ago as the mines and needs of the miners grew.
“We’ve been flat out since we walked back in the door,’’ he said.
“The pub was shut down for eight months before we got back here and we haven’t stopped since coming back.”
Jane makes three meals a day for the mine crews and the couple say they are eagerly waiting for the roadhouse in the town to reopen under the control of mining company EQ Resources Limited.
“With the new mine opening up they are looking at 180 workers there and we’re definitely going to have our work cut out for us with them in town,’’ Dale said.
The former Port Douglas Crocs footballer said something happened in Mt Carbine every day as plenty of tourists passed through on the Mulligan Highway or stayed at the newly set up Mary’s Camp.
“We get a bit of a shake if they are blasting by the near wall of the mine, but it all is pretty good. If there’s a bit of dust, they get onto it pretty quickly,’’ he said.
Mt Carbine Mine is situated in the Mareeba Shire within the Siluro-Devonian Hodgkinson sedimentary province, a region known for complexly folded and metamorphosed sedimentary rocks intruded by granitic bodies.
Mt Carbine is Australia’s leading tungsten mine, fully owned and operated by EQ Resources Limited (EQR) The mine primarily produces tungsten concentrate from open-pit operations, historical stockpile retreatment, and ore sorting using TOMRA XRT and gravity concentration methods.
The Mt Carbine Mine has a long history, with initial discovery in 1895 and large-scale operations established in the 1970s and 1980s .It is a critical mineral asset, supplying tungsten to global markets outside China, and plays a strategic role in supporting renewable energy technologies, industrial applications, and high-strength alloys.
The mine is currently undergoing expansion to increase throughput and processing capacity, reinforcing its position as a key Western tungsten supplier.
