Houses, town water supply sold in mining mega‑deal
A $5.8 billion mega-coal mining deal has all but put a town up for sale, handing the new owner the mines, hundreds of homes and crucial community services.
Source: AAP
It is not every day a mining deal comes with houses, childcare centres and the town water supply thrown in.
But in central Queensland, a big slice of country town Middlemount has been included in a deal struck to sell off a multinational company’s Australian steelmaking mines.
However Anglo American’s mega deal has come under fire from a local mayor, warning it amounts to the sale of “entire communities”.
Anglo American will leave Queensland after selling its five Australian steelmaking mines to Dhilmar Ltd in a move worth about $5.8 billion.
The deal is far more than a routine change of hands in the coalfields, with purpose-built mining town Middlemount also to be impacted.
Dhilmar is expected to take control of about 600 houses in Middlemount set aside for mine workers and essential staff such as teachers, nurses and police officers, making the new owner one of the town’s biggest landlords.
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Anglo also ran key services such as the town water supply and childcare facilities. They will be taken over by Dhilmar in the deal, the local mayor said.
“This isn’t just the transfer of mining leases,” Isaac Regional Council Mayor Kelly Vea Vea said.
“This is the wholesale of entire residential portfolios, commercial spaces and community services that go with it.
“We all work together, we live together, we raise our families together – so the sale of these mine assets has far‑reaching implications well beyond the mining leases themselves.”
Vea Vea said another 200 houses in nearby Moranbah would also be run by Dhilmar as part of the deal.
Water, housing and basic services in Middlemount and Moranbah were intertwined with the mining operations, she said, leaving locals wondering what the new owner would do.
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“Communities like ours don’t have separate water supplies – they come from mining companies,” Vea Vea said.
“A lot of assistance is given for things like childcare, commercial spaces and water infrastructure, so how we work out our partnerships and relate to each other is so important to keeping our communities viable.”
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli said the sale was a vote of confidence in the state’s resources sector.
“I want people to know there’s a bright future in Queensland mining, because you’ve got a government who’s on your side,” he said.
Under the deal, Dhilmar will pay about $3.4 billion when the sale goes through, with another $2.4 billion possible over the next five years if coal prices stay high enough.
Anglo said it would use the money to pay down debt and streamline its business as it prepared for a planned merger with Canadian miner Teck.
The sale covers major steelmaking coal operations including Moranbah North, Grosvenor, Capcoal, Roper Creek and Dawson, plus half of the Moranbah South project.
Anglo last year sold its stake in the Jellinbah mine for about $1.5 billion.
With this latest deal, the value of its steelmaking coal exits climbs to around $7.3 billion.
The Dhilmar transaction still has to clear regulators and competition watchdogs and is not expected to be finalised until early 2027.
-with AAP
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