Blue Cap Mining says its Western Australian operations including the Devon gold mine near Laverton, about 900 kilometres north‑east of Perth are at risk of shutting down as diesel supplies tighten across the state. The mine, which trucks ore nearly 300 kilometres for processing, consumes around 15,000 litres of fuel a day, a demand independent distributors are struggling to meet.
Managing director David Fraser said the company has less than two weeks’ worth of fuel left at normal operating rates.
“My primary concern is increasing our storage capacity on site, because I can’t see it being solved any time soon,” he said.
Australia’s resources sector is one of the nation’s biggest diesel consumers. According to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, the industry uses almost 10 billion litres of diesel annually. A single large haul truck can burn one million litres in a year. ABS data shows the mining sector accounted for 35 per cent of Australia’s diesel use in 2023-24 a consumption level that has surged more than 90 per cent since 2010–11, reaching 9.6 billion litres last financial year.
Fraser said smaller mining companies, like farmers, rely heavily on independent fuel distributors and are now finding themselves at the back of the queue.
“It’s frustrating, it’s not a level playing field,” he said, noting that major mining giants enjoy far greater certainty of supply.
With fuel shortages worsening and demand rising, smaller operators fear they may soon be forced to scale back or suspend production.
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