Minerals Council of Australia

On 23 April 2020, the Minerals Council of Australia, together with seven other mining industry associations (being the Queensland Resources Council, the NSW Minerals Council, the SA Chamber of Mines and Energy, the Chamber of Mines and Energy of WA, the Tasmanian Minerals, Manufacturing and Energy Council, the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies, and the Australian Aluminium Council) (the Applicants) lodged an application for authorisation on behalf of themselves, entities who are full members of an Applicant and listed in the schedule, and any other entities participating in the Australian mining industry provided the ACCC is notified in advance (the Participants).

The Participants seek authorisation to collaborate to respond to shortages in the supply of certain critical services and supplies arising out of the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes to discuss, enter into or give effect to any contract, arrangement or understanding that has the purpose of:

• collaborating to share inventories of, or rationalising demand for, critical mining supplies and services;
• coordinating scheduling and supply chain activities of those supplies and services;
• sharing details of potential suppliers of PPE (see 3.2 of the application).

The Applicants seek authorisation for 12 months from the date of the ACCC’s final determination.

On 24 April 2020, the ACCC granted interim authorisation, subject to conditions which require the Minerals Council of Australia to report material arrangements to the ACCC and provide any further information the ACCC requests, and to provide regular updates more generally.

On 5 August 2020, the ACCC issued a draft determination proposing to grant conditional authorisation until 30 June 2021.

On 27 August 2020, the ACCC granted conditional authorisation to the Participants until 30 June 2021. The final determination document can be found below.

If no application for review of the determination is made to the Australian Competition Tribunal, the authorisation will come into force on 18 September 2020.

Further information on the application and the ACCC’s decision is available through the links below.

An indicative timetable is set out below for your information.