Mass iron ore jobs at risk with MinRes shutdown
Up to 1000 jobs are at risk with billionaire Chris Ellison’s Mineral Resources to stop shipments from its Yilgarn iron ore hub by the end of this year.
Up to 1000 jobs are in danger after the decision by billionaire Chris Ellison’s Mineral Resources to shut down its Yilgarn iron ore operation in the south of Western Australia.
The mining giant said “having carefully considered all options” it had concluded the Yilgarn Hub was not financially viable beyond the end of calendar year 2024 with shipments to stop by December 31.
It said the trigger for the decision was a raft of factors including the limited remaining mine life across five operating mines spread over 220 kilometres and the significant capital cost and lead time required to develop new resources to ensure continuity of supply.
Some 1000 staff face the risk of losing their roles although MinRes added it will work with employees on redeployment opportunities across its operations, noting nearly 800 vacancies including through the ramp up of its Onslow Iron project.
“This prudent but difficult decision was not taken lightly and follows years of investment to extend the life of our operations in the Yilgarn, said Mr Ellison, MinRes managing director. “With our investment across Western Australia, we have almost 800 vacancies and will redeploy as many of our people as possible to other MinRes operations, including to our low-cost, long-life Onslow Iron project.”
MinRes added it had operated in the region since first shipments from Carina in 2011 and said in 2018 with the WA government it save hundreds of local jobs at Koolyanobbing that were set to be lost with the departure of Cliffs.
“By the end of this year, we will have operated Koolyanobbing for six and a half years, exported almost 45 million tonnes via the Port of Esperance and spent $4.2bn running our Yilgarn operation, exceeding our commitments,” Mr Ellison said.
“I want to thank everyone whose hard work and dedication over the past 13 years made this challenging operation a great success.”
The state’s mining sector has endured a tough ride so far this year. BHP in February signalled it is considering mothballing the entirety of its WA nickel division, putting about 3000 jobs at risk, with the company slashing the value of its Nickel West division in WA and flagging more than $US6.5bn worth of impairments in its half-year accounts.
That grim call came on the back of a wave of mine closures in the WA nickel sector in the face of soaring exports of cheap nickel from Indonesia.
The tumbling price of the steel and battery making commodity has already sent Panoramic Resources under, forced Andrew Forrest’s Wyloo Metals to close the underground nickel operation bought through the takeover of Mincor Resources, and stopped construction of IGO’s Cosmos nickel operation.
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