MINING companies spent $868.1 million across the Central West during the past year and the wider community is reaping the benefits, business experts say. The NSW Minerals Council's annual Expenditure Survey of its member companies, showed 28 participating mining companies had a significant impact on the region.
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The survey says these companies directly injected $868.1m into the Central West during the 2017/18 financial year, including $539.2m in wages, to 4941 employees working in the region's mines. NSW Minerals Council chief executive officer Stephen Galilee said the mining sector also had a significant flow-on impact for businesses and workers in the Central West.
During the 2017/18 financial year, $328.4m was spent by the mining sector on purchases in businesses across these LGAs. The report also revealed that this spending by the mining industry directly supported 1364 Central West businesses.
Mr Galilee said mining operations had provided jobs and investment for the region, in some cases for decades, directly employing thousands, and indirectly supporting many thousands more jobs through local businesses that supply the mines.
"This economic injection from mining has been essential for the communities of the Central West," he said. "Coal operations around the Mudgee region including Peabody's Wilpinjong mine and Glencore's Ulan mine continue to provide jobs and investment for the local community".
NSW Business Chamber western regional manager, Vicki Seccombe, said she was not surprised by the data and that mining made a significant contribution to the Central West and the broader NSW economy every year.
"The creation of a mining industry in the Central West has definitely provided more extensive work opportunities than we would have had in the past," she said. "There are now a range of different career choices available for our youth and locals via the mining industry and our larger employers".
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Ms Seccombe said, however, it was not only the mining sector that received the benefits. "When you think of other industries that get a boost, the service sector immediately comes to mind - that's retail, accommodation, food services, health, and education," she said. "Of course there is a lot of interplay with the manufacturing, engineering and construction sectors as well".
Ms Seccombe said mining was very much a key sector and contributor to many of the Central West LGAs, but agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare, education and training, construction and public administration were also big sectors in the region.
