A third of Mirabela Nickel’s workforce at the Santa Rita mine and 180 contractors have been made redundant, as the troubled miner begins scaling back production at its nickel project in Brazil.
Mirabela, which was placed in receivership yesterday after the directors put the company into administration last month, said it had terminated the employment of about 220 workers at Santa Rita, representing about 33.7 per cent of the project’s staff.
“The reduction of the workforce at Santa Rita forms part of Mirabela’s decision to decrease production output at the mine in order to reduce operating costs during the current sustained climate of depressed nickel prices,” Mirabela said in a statement.
“The lower production model, commencing from late October, will facilitate a 33 per cent reduction in current nickel in concentrate annual production output, from 18,000 tonnes to 12,000t, annualised.”
The lower production model has been employed to manage operations at Santa Rita as close to breakeven as possible from a cash position perspective, over a fifteen month period beginning now.
“Mirabela management believe this action to be prudent in light of continuing sustained weak nickel prices and position the operations for any recovery in prices,” it said.
Mirabela lowered its 2015 production guidance from 16,500-18,000t to about 14,500-16,000t of nickel contained in concentrate.
