Lithium mine closure shines light on Ravensthorpe community's resilience
The start of the new financial year saw the lithium mine at Mt Cattlin, just north of the town and about 500 kilometres south-east of Perth, placed into care and maintenance.
It was the another casualty of market volatility that claimed a number of mines across Western Australia, and triggered the loss of hundreds of jobs.
It is the second hit Ravensthorpe has taken, with 300 local jobs lost when the town's nickel mine was shuttered last year.
But disruption isn't unusual for the community. It's the second time in 15 years the lithium mine has been mothballed.
Beyond the mine closure, there have been floods, fires, a plane crash and a sex scandal that engulfed the local council.
Lifelong Ravensthorpe local and shire president Tom Major said the run of adversity highlighted the strength of people in the town.
"Look, we are a resilient community and it's just another page in the chapter of where we live," he said.
"We'll soldier on. The agricultural industry is going really well, we're having a reasonable season, and the tourists just keep coming, so that industry is doing well.
This most recent mine closure hasn't come as a surprise, with former owners Arcadium Lithium flagging the project for care and maintenance in September last year.
Mr Major said unlike previous project closures, which happened almost overnight, the extended process had allowed the council to assess its priorities.
The long lead time has given about 110 workers time to look for other jobs, with many staying in the community thanks to an improvement in services like NBN.
"There have been people leave the community and school numbers are down a little bit, so I wouldn't say we've come through unaffected," Mr Major said.
"We've got some of the some of the best fibre-to-the-premise internet you can get.
"So we are seeing people move here that can work remotely or have online businesses, that sort of thing."
Cheap and available housing, strong agriculture and a burgeoning tourism sector are also keeping the local economy ticking along.
The influx of new people and a move towards showing off the region's unique features is spurring on Sue Leighton, chair of the newly formed Ravensthorpe tourism advisory group.
"The community is sort of used to mining coming and going … and we have been eased into this," Ms Leighton said.
She said the tourism sector would be pivotal in ensuring the region's survival.
The Hopetoun local said now there was no active mining in the region, there was a chance to re-focus, and that the community remained open to new possibilities.
"There's always activity for mining, for exploration and research," Ms Leighton said.
"The townspeople are very resilient and look if new new mine starts up, we'll welcome all those people to come into town.
"Then if they go again, we'll be sad that they're gone, but we've made good friends."
Community consultation over the shutdown began almost 12 months ago, before any announcement that the project would be placed on care and maintenance.
Shortly after Arcadium Lithium announced the closure, the company was snapped up by mining giant Rio Tinto.
While Rio Tinto's reputation in WA has suffered in recent years, its approach in Ravensthorpe has been hailed within the community and the company as best practice.
"I haven't seen a relationship between a mine and a community as strong as the one that I've seen here between the Mt Cattlin mine and the town of Ravensthorpe," said Rio Tinto's general manager of technical services Leigh Slomp.
While Mt Cattlin's operating future remains uncertain, Mr Slomp said they were proud of how they had worked with the community.
"That strong community consultation group … that's the sort of thing we want to be doing while we're in operation, not just when we get to a point where we might have to make a difficult decision," he said.
"We've always been very open with the community … we need to be as transparent as we can be and that transparency then is reciprocated because the community understands the situation."
Mr Slomp said Rio Tinto would remain active in the community while the project was on care and maintenance, and other miners could benefit from a similarly transparent approach.
"Not only just to gain that social licence to operate, it's because we're operating within the community," he said.
"We we need to be working with the community, we're not separate to the community.
"I think this exercise that we've gone through in this care and maintenance phase with the town of Ravensthorpe should be held up as a model for other companies."
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