Up to 380 employees will be made redundant when Perth-based manganese miner Consolidated Minerals puts its Woodie Woodie mine in the Pilbara on care and maintenance next month.
Consolidated, which is owned by Ukrainian billionaire Gennadiy Bogolyubov, announced today it had decided to suspend operations at the Woodie Woodie manganese mine, with all work to cease by February 2.
“Despite relentless cost-cutting and marketing efforts to remain competitive, the price for manganese ore is now so low that in the board’s view continuing to operate at Woodie Woodie is no longer economically viable,” Consolidated said in a statement.
The company said about 330 direct employees and 50 contractors would be affected by the decision.
“A small team will be maintained for a short period beyond this date to complete a number of activities that are necessary to transition Woodie Woodie into care and maintenance,” Consolidated said.
“Beyond this transition, a smaller caretaking and support team will be retained.”
Consolidated intends to sell existing stockpiles when the price of manganese ore reaches a satisfactory level.
Meanwhile, Perth-based Grange Resources said up to 55 positions would be made redundant at its operations in Tasmania as a result of the depressed iron ore market.
The job cuts, which will total less than 10 per cent of the company’s total workforce, will include voluntary redundancies.
The news comes as local iron ore miner BC Iron winds down operations at its Nullagine joint venture project with Fortescue Metals Group, with over 200 jobs made redundant.
The miner announced last month that operations at Nullagine would be suspended by the end of January.