Four years ago Kalari and Dallas Morris started their drill and blast consumables business in the garage of their Mackay home in Queensland.

Today, iCutter Industries in Mackay is a leading Indigenous business supplying drilling consumables, training and consulting to mines across the East Coast of Australia.

“Our family owned and operated Indigenous business has grown to include daughter Alyce and eleven other motivated and experienced locals with locations now in Mackay, Queensland and the Hunter Valley, New South Wales,” Dallas Morris said,

BHP has been side-by-side with iCutter on their four-year journey and this partnership was further solidified with BMA awarding iCutter a 2 year contract for the supply and refurbish of drill bits and consumables across all our Queensland open cut mine sites.

“This long-term partnership future proofs our business, enables us to scale our operations to employ an additional five consultants and to increase our support in the local communities.

“As an Indigenous business, we are passionate about providing training and employment opportunities for Indigenous Australians and thanks to this latest contract we will look to increase our Indigenous workforce to 65% by December 2023.

“Our support for local charities and community organisations will double with beneficiaries like Blackwater Preschool, Young Mining Professionals Brisbane, and the 2022 Barra National Indigenous Team, to name just a few.

“And the small businesses and suppliers that we work with are growing with us, creating economic growth in the community of Mackay because of initiatives like this,” Dallas added.

Last financial year BMA spent more than 1 billion with local businesses and suppliers across Queensland.