Privately owned miner Consolidated Minerals has been hit by plunging commodity prices, advising staff this week that it plans to close two of its Western Australian mines and cut employment of staff and contractors by 180 positions.
The West Perth based company plans to put its Kambalda nickel operations on care and maintenance from mid-December, wth all underground operations being suspended.
This will result in 78 staff and 55 contractors losing their positions, with only about 10 staff keeping their jobs, to maintain the mine site.
ConsMin also plans to put its Coobina chromite mine and lump ore processing plant in the Pilbara on care and maintenance, resulting in the loss of about 26 staff and 21 contractor positions.
The company will keep about 23 staff at Coobina to run the chromite fines processing plant, which is due to be commissioned by the end of the year.
ConsMin's main focus will be its Woodie Woodie manganese mine in the Pilbara, which currently has a workforce of 154 employees and 210 contractors.
Company spokesman David Brook said the Woodie operation will require a strong change in emphasis from volume to value, and as a result the company will be adjusting future production to be in line with market demand.
"We believe that these changes and those previously impemented will now put the business on a more sustainable footing to manage the current and anticipated challenging market conditions," Mr Brook said.
He added a head office review is likely to result in some further redundancies.
ConsMin is owned by Ukrainian backed company Palmary Enterprises, which won a protracted $1.2 billion takeover battle last year.
