Global miner BHP Billiton has announced plans to cut jobs at Olympic Dam facilities in South Australia as miners are forced to cut costs to cope with falling commodity prices. Oil, iron ore and copper prices are at their lowest levels since 2009 amid oversupply in some markets and a slowdown in the Chinese economy.
"Over the past several months, Olympic Dam has focused on identifying opportunities to safely cut costs in order to build a strong, viable business," BHP said in a statement. "As a result, we came to the conclusion that the excess number of workers must be reduced." The miner said some of the workers will be redeployed to Olympic Dam's operations, which produce mainly copper, so the company is not yet able to accurately estimate the loss of jobs.
Opposition state leader Stephen Marshall said there would be about 300 job losses in the near future, some of which they hope could be recruited to other sites in connection with the Olympic Dam expansion plan. From the second half of 2015 Olympic Dam plans to increase copper production.
Copper has fallen below $ 5,400 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange for the past three months, reaching its lowest level since July 2009. Copper lost more than 11 percent in January 2015 and is on track for its worst month since September 2011.
BHP Billiton plans to cut jobs in Australia
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Azovpromstal® 2 February 2015 г. 11:02 |
