{"id":162760,"date":"2016-11-08T21:44:22","date_gmt":"2016-11-08T11:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=162760"},"modified":"2020-10-01T12:54:03","modified_gmt":"2020-10-01T02:54:03","slug":"south-burnett-is-wide-bays-mining-capital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2016\/11\/08\/south-burnett-is-wide-bays-mining-capital\/","title":{"rendered":"South Burnett Is Wide Bay’s Mining Capital"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Meandu<\/a>
Meandu Mine and the Tarong Power Stations kept 23 per cent of South Burnett workers in a job in 2015-16, according to new data from the Queensland Resources Council (Photo: Rio Tinto)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

November 8, 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

The South Burnett is the mining capital of the Wide Bay-Burnett, according to the Queensland Resources Council (QRC).<\/p>\n

In new figures released this week, the QRC provided a region-by-region breakdown of the contribution the resources industry made to the state in 2015-16.<\/p>\n

The QRC say the resources industry directly employed 678 people in the South Burnett and paid them $100 million last financial year.<\/p>\n

It also spent an extra $121 million on goods, services and community contributions, which was spread between 629 local businesses and 29 community organisations.<\/p>\n

This, in turn, helped support an extra 2182 local full-time jobs and value-added a further $228 million to the South Burnett’s economy.<\/p>\n

All up, the QRC says, the South Burnett’s resources industry injected $449 million into the region’s Gross Regional Product (GRP), accounting for 26 per cent of total GRP.<\/p>\n

And the 2861 full time jobs it directly and indirectly supported accounted for 23 per cent of the South Burnett’s total employment.<\/p>\n

This is between three to nine times more than in neighbouring Wide Bay-Burnett regions, where the resource industry’s contribution to GRP in 2015-16 ranged between 3 per cent and 7 per cent, and where the average number of people who depended on the resources sector for a job ranged between two and five per cent.<\/p>\n

The QRC is a not-for-profit peak industry association representing the commercial developers of Queensland\u2019s minerals and energy resources.<\/p>\n

It was formed in November 2003, succeeding the Queensland Mining Council, and represents explorers, miners, mineral processors, contractors, oil and gas producers and electricity generators.<\/p>\n