Glencore has been threatening to shut its loss-making Mount Isa copper smelter and Townsville copper refinery, saying it could not afford to operate them without subsidies.
On Wednesday, federal Industry Minister Tim Ayres and Queensland Resources Minister Dale Last announced they had struck a deal to keep them running.
Mr Ayres said the agreement provided much-needed certainty for workers and maintained Australia's domestic minerals processing capacity, which was fundamental to economic resilience, self-sufficiency and the transition to net-zero emissions.
"Copper is critical to building solar panels, wind turbines and energy storage systems," he said.
"If Australia didn't already have established facilities like the Mount Isa copper smelter, we'd be looking to build them to protect Australia's industrial capability."
In July, Glencore closed its underground copper mine at Mount Isa with a loss of almost 500 direct jobs.
It also warned it was preparing to put the nearby copper smelter and its Townsville copper refinery into care and maintenance until market conditions improved.
The Mount Isa smelter is one of Australia's largest industrial facilities and energy users, providing about half of the nation's copper smelting capacity.
More than 600 direct jobs and a further 500 jobs at the nearby Phosphate Hill facility will be protected by the bailout.
Three funding tranches will be released to Glencore contingent on the company proving it can keep the facility financially sustainable beyond the three-year arrangement.
It will also have to complete a transformation study to demonstrate further industrial opportunities in the region.
Glencore said the assets were losing money and forecast a $2.2 billion loss over the next seven years.
The federal government has been under pressure from the minerals processing industry to prop up loss-making facilities or see Australia's industrial workforce further eroded amid high energy costs and international price distortion.
Rescue packages have already been doled out to the Whyalla steelworks in South Australia and Nyrstar's lead smelters in South Australia and Tasmania as part of the government's Future Made in Australia push.
But thousands of jobs remain up in the air at Australia's largest energy user - the Tomago aluminium smelter in NSW - where the government is considering another bailout.
The government maintains it will not be simply propping up facilities that have been left to wither by neglectful owners but will be applying strict requirements for companies to invest in their long-term viability.
Mr Last said the Queensland government would provide funding for capital infrastructure works but it would not pay for operational costs or "covering Glencore's losses".
The federal opposition said any effort to keep the copper operations open would be good news for the local community, but the deal should have been done sooner.
"For months, smelter and refinery workers in Mount Isa and Townsville - plus support industries - have lived under a cloud of uncertainty while the federal government dragged its feet," resources spokeswoman Susan McDonald said.
Federal MP Bob Katter, whose seat of Kennedy covers Mount Isa and the region surrounding Townsville, said the closure of Glencore's copper operations and the simultaneous shutdown of the Phosphate Hill facility would be "catastrophic".
"We've got our industries hanging by a thread: bananas, copper, phosphate, they're all on the scaffold," he said.
The $600 million package will be split between the Commonwealth and the Queensland government, with work on the specifics of the funding arrangements to be completed over coming weeks.
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