The Mt Carbine tungsten mine will be the scene for a World Peace vigil this Saturday, November 30, with peace activists and groups from across Far North Queensland converging there for a non-violent direct action and 15-minute silent peace vigil remembering the more than 15,000 Palestinian children killed in Gaza since October last year.

Scheduled for 4.30pm, the action will take place at the EQ Resources Mt Carbine mine front gate on Mulligan Hwy.

This convergence was inspired by recent news of a Mt Carbine tungsten deal critical to world security.

“Our action is intended to create more awareness in the local community and around the world about the origins of unethical products of war just like the tungsten exported from Mt Carbine,’’ a vigil spokesman, Daniel Jones, said.

“These products end up in the bodies of innocent civilians including children and used for maximum destruction of people’s homes and infrastructure in war crime atrocities such as those witnessed in Gaza by Israel.

“The peace vigil is in response to the mine owner EQ Resources finalising a deal with the US Department of Defence in August that would secure these minerals ‘critical’ to weapons manufacturing and war profits for the life of the mine.’

“It is understood by participants that the mine provides local job opportunities and that ethical tungsten products do exist such as those used in medical, renewable technologies and aerospace industries. However, the issue we seek to highlight is that the majority are military applications that are fundamentally wrong and cannot be attributed to ‘world security’.

“Our message at the world peace vigil will be clear - that the Mt Carbine mine is: ‘Tungsten - source of American war profits, of warheads, tanks and shrapnel cubes, and of Israeli war crimes’.

More than one-third of private e-scooter riders presenting to emergency admitted to travelling at speeds over 25km per hour and 58% were triaged at the second highest urgency response, according to new nation-leading research.

RACQ’s Head of Public Policy Dr Michael Kane said the research between RACQ and the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital Foundation, conducted by the Jamieson Trauma Institute (JTI), showed reform was needed to address the seriousness of life-changing facial and head injuries on private and hired e-scooters.

“It’s clear many riders on privately owned e-scooters are speeding, and sustaining more severe injuries, but riders on hired devices are still getting seriously injured,” Dr Kane said.

Patient interviews, now being conducted at five Queensland major emergency departments, found 64% were injured on a private device compared with 36% on hired e-scooters, which is consistent with a surge in the popularity of owning an e-scooter.

Dr Kane urged the new government to consider the results of the JTI research in the next round of e-scooter reforms and for consumers to re-think what scooter model is safest for them.

In 2024, eight people have been killed on Personal Mobility Devices in Queensland.

As of September 30, 2024, there have been 1050 presentations to participating Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit (QISU) emergency departments in Queensland as a result of an e-scooter ride gone wrong.