Mining giant Glencore says jobs losses part of ‘business as usual’ at Murrin Murrin
The job cuts at potentially Australia’s last surviving nickel mine arrive with Glencore yet to finalise a $600m taxpayer-funded bailout package for its Mount Isa copper smelter.
Glencore is sacking workers at its Murrin Murrin nickel mine in Western Australia but denies that job losses are the first step in an eventual shutdown of the loss-making operations.
The Swiss company has been cutting jobs, including senior and long-serving workers, at what has so far proved the most resilient nickel mine in Australia.
It is understood some workers have been offered higher payouts on top of their severance entitlements if they agree to resign. The job cuts at Murrin Murrin arrive with Glencore yet to finalise a $600m taxpayer-funded bailout package for its Mount Isa copper smelter.
The joint federal and Queensland government bailout was announced with great fanfare on October 8. And while the smelter rescue agreement remains on track, Glencore is still combing through the details two months later and has warned the smelter may shut in 2026 irrespectively, depending on the future of Dyno Nobel’s Phosphate Hill fertiliser operations.
As for Murrin Murrin, Glencore said it was “business as usual”. The mine employs about 1300 workers and contractors.
“Like any large business, our employee numbers may fluctuate over time as we manage our requirements,” a Glencore spokesman said on Monday.
Murrin Murrin may become the last nickel mine standing in Australia if it were to outlive the other operational competitor, IGO Limited-owned Nova, which is fast approaching the end of its life.
The other nickel mines in WA, owned by BHP and the family of iron ore billionaire Andrew Forrest, shut down in 2024 incurring the loss of thousands of jobs. The demise of the nickel industry came despite an 11th-hour campaign by the federal government to get customers to distinguish between the metal produced under high environment, social and governance standards in Australia and so-called dirty nickel laterite production in Indonesia.
Indonesia has come to dominate world supply.
BHP is now looking to sell the whole of its nickel business, which comes with a $US900m rehabilitation and closure liability. The divestment strategy includes breaking up the business.
The Murrin Murrin mine, also Australia’s leading producer of battery metal cobalt, was unprofitable in the first half of 2025.
Glencore boss Gary Nagle said at the time that he intended to persist with Murrin Murrin and that the mine was not in the same predicament as the Mount Isa copper smelter. “We have no plans to close Murrin Murrin. We did have a weak six months,” he said and noted prices continued to languish below $US15,000 a tonne.
“We had some operational issues at Murrin in the first six months of the year, which meant lower production, higher costs, and we went slightly negative. We’re not the kind of company that we have one half that doesn’t make some money, and we’re going to threaten to close these things down.
“It’s very different to Mount Isa, where there’s a structural change in the market.”
Glencore and the two governments remain committed to the Mount Isa agreement unveiled in October.
The $600m will be split evenly by federal and Queensland taxpayers, and be delivered in three tranches over three years, contingent on Glencore holding up its end of the deal. Glencore will need to submit to monthly oversight meetings with the governments, prove its investment in the smelter and an associated Townsville refinery, and keep its 600-strong workforce employed.
Glencore’s Australian coal, nickel and copper businesses did not feature heavily in the Swiss multinational’s capital markets day last week, preferring a heavy focus on growing copper production in South America.
However, Mr Nagle said Glencore wanted to retain its coal business, which in Australia includes thermal and metallurgical coal mines in Queensland and NSW.
“We’re not considering spinning off coal from our business. We did consider it about 18 months ago,” he said.
“We believe in coal, the future of coal, energy and steelmaking coal, the fundamentals, the pricing, the demand for coal. We believe it’s an important part of our diversified business and our mix and how we approach the energy transition.”
Originally published as Mining giant Glencore says jobs losses part of ‘business as usual’ at Murrin Murrin
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