Ghost town fears for Qld community TWO women who are fighting to keep their central Queensland town from going under have travelled thousands of kilometres to ask the head of mining giant Glencore-Xstrata to rehire locals. Coal has been mined at Collinsville for more than 100 years, but operations were suspended in August and 400 people sacked. Glencore-Xstrata plans to re-engineer it with new technology to make it more profitable and to reopen operations. But Donna Bulloch and fifth-generation Collinsville resident Laurie-Anne Williams say the miner is expected to prefer fly-in fly-out workers and is refusing to give preference to the former workforce, which has operated the mine under a contractor for 17 years. They have travelled to Sydney to talk to chief executive Ivan Glasenberg about the impact job losses has had on the community. However, he did not meet them and instead they talked to company representatives who the women say refused to answer key concerns. The 2000-strong community is almost totally dependent on the mine and at least eight businesses have gone under since August. "If locals don't get re-employed at this mine, the town will die," Ms Bulloch said. Families will leave, families that can't leave are going to be separated when husbands and fathers are forced into a drive-in drive-out lifestyle. You hear about these ghost towns, towns that used to be mining communities, that's what we're afraid of.