G'day, I'm new to this forum. I've been burned in the past buying a negative geared property which cost me a fortune. Looking for positive cashflow properties in WA. Kambalda keeps intruding on my mind due to low cost houses and the resurgence of gold and emergence of lithium mining in the area. Anyone have any thoughts as I live in a mining town and am aware of the ups and downs in the market. Cheers
My thoughts are if your'e an investor, avoid mining towns altogether. Investing in a mining town is basically gambling. Even if you understand the fundamentals of the commodities supporting the region and the details behind the development sequence, it doesn't take much to turn your "investment" into a $-drain. Lithium mines are pretty small operations and it seems like the processing will be done in Kwinana anyway. Kambalda is mainly dependent on Nickel West at the moment and NiW is only alive because it costs too much to shut down (rehab costs through the roof). Why regional WA anyway? For my mind, the regional towns aren't big enough here to warrant putting my money into. Exceptions would be Mandurah/Rockingham and maybe Bunbury area at a pinch. There are other opportunities for CF+ properties. Adelaide? East-coast regionals? Outer-ring Brisbane area? NRAS properties?
Mount Marion Mine is a new Lithium mine which also doing a fesibily study on a Lithium Concentrate procesing plant. Just did some digging around with the mining company and its a FIFO mine so that kills that idea. Oh well.
I started my mining life in Kambalda back in 1997.When Western Mining went to 12-hour shifts, it demolished the social fabric of the town and living in Kambalda became less attractive.Not long after the Nickel price dropped and which sent a lot of mines into care and maintenance. I think there have been many ups and downs since. I do remember that all the housing was owned and built by WMC then slowly sold off. These houses were fine but there was maybe 5 different floor plans which were repeated every 5th block, similar to housing commission. I would think most people who DIDO would prefer to live in Kal or Esperance.
As far as s**tholes go, Kambalda is right up there. The company you speak of do mostly fifo but quite a few from Kambalda and Kalgoorlie also work there. They use a camp in Kambalda to house everyone not local so its not like they will be paying you to rent your house. The locals don't get subsidised for their mortgage or rents either. They will most likely process the lithium on site but it will still only be an 80 or so man operation. One has to wonder when you can buy houses for 30k. But maybe nickle and gold will take off again and you could be sitting pretty. Maybe spend a few nights there and see what you think?
