Mincor cuts jobs, restructures operations

Nickel miner Mincor Resources has made a number of redundancies as it plans to cut back development of its Kambalda operations near Kalgoorlie, in response to the ongoing weakness in nickel prices.

After halting development at its Mariners mine, Mincor will suspend capital development at its Miitel mine and will only be carrying out stoping operations at the two projects.

“The company will review operations at Miitel and Mariners through the second half of the year in light of the prevailing nickel price with a view to either recommencing capital development and ramping up production from those mines or reducing production after November and focusing primarily on the development of its new growth projects at Burnett, Cassini, Voyce and Durkin,” Mincor said in a statement.

The company expects to produce about 120,000 tonnes of ore at 2.8 per cent nickel between June and November, and plans to meet its production target of 8,500 tonnes of nickel-in-ore for FY15.

As a result of the restructure, Mincor will be cutting its workforce by about 50.

Managing director David Moore said he deeply regretted the job losses, but that after four years of falling nickel prices, changes were required in order to safeguard the future of the company.

“Our revised mining plan will optimise cashflows and allow us to re-build production at both mines in due course, while giving us the scope to complete the drilling and evaluation of our four exciting new growth projects,” Mr Moore said.

“The changes announced today will give us a solid foundation on which to build our next decade of profitable nickel mining in Kambalda.”

The company said the revised mining plan would leave substantial undeveloped ore reserves available for future mining at Miitel and Mariners.

“A key element of the plan is that it is reversible at any time, should the nickel price improve,” it said.

Resource modelling is underway on Mincor’s Voyce, Durkin and Burnett projects, while a conceptual scoping study is being carried out at Cassini to determine priorities for the recommencement of diamond drilling in the September quarter.

Mincor shares were unchanged at 61 cents each at 10am.