Officials at Gina Rinehart’s Roy Hill project say if current economic conditions continue foreign workers will not be needed to help build the mine.
ABC News reports a Roy Hill spokesperson said under the current conditions it appeared the full workforce for Roy Hill could be sourced within Australia.
The spokesperson said Hancock Prospecting was confident it could find the workers following the cancellation of several other large resources projects.
Last year the Federal Government gave Hancock the ability to hire up to 1,700 foreign workers as part of an Enterprise Migration Act.
The move drew the ire of unions and some parts of the resources community, but the company said the agreement was necessary in order to get Roy Hill off the ground.
Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union WA secretary Joe McDonald said Hancock’s move to source Australian workers would be a “victory for commonsense”.