Call for summit to save coal industry Anglo American chief executive Mark Cutifani. Picture: Colin Murty Source: Herald Sun AUSTRALIA'S coal industry is at "a tipping point" and will survive only if government gets off the back of miners, Anglo American chief Mark Cutifani has warned. Mr Cutifani said 9000 mining jobs had been lost in Queensland and NSW over the past year and "those numbers look like they are about to rapidly increase." He also said high costs, declining productivity, higher royalty payments, red tape and the carbon and mining super-profits tax had dragged Australia behind the US, Canada, Indonesia and Colombia for competitiveness in coal. "Let me be very clear, the Australian coal industry is at a tipping point for future growth and will only survive if governments want the sector to invest in the country," Mr Cutifani said. His comments, made at a Minerals Council of Australia conference in Canberra, came as Aquila Resources announced it was delaying construction of its Eagle Downs coal project in Queensland. Aquila pinned the decision on weak coal prices. Mr Cutifani was speaking a day after US giant Peabody cut 450 contractors from its NSW and Queensland coal mines and after Glencore-Xstrata earlier shelved a $142 million expansion program and sacked about 50 staff. He also said the nation's political leaders had wasted the wealth generated by mining companies during the mining boom, failing to invest in critical infrastructure that would drive growth throughout the entire economy. "We have more than wasted a commodities boom - we have undermined its very foundations by creating uncertainty and doubt in the minds of long term investors," he said. The Anglo American chief, who replaced Cynthia Carroll in the top job earlier in the year, called for a national summit similar to the Hawke government's 1983 National Economic Summit. It could chart out a new economic plan for a post-mining boom Australia, Mr Cutifani said. Some $150 billion in resource projects have been shelved or suspended over the past year, according to government figures. Minerals Council of Australia chairman Peter Johnston said the industry faced challenges but cautioned future investment was being jeopardised by overly pessimistic outlooks.