Who will be left to mine the world’s metals and minerals? As prices for gold, silver, copper, uranium, and iron ore continue to fall, miners are increasingly turning to layoffs to help meet the need to contain costs.
Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX ) just announced it will lay off 30% of its corporate staff in Toronto, or about 100 people, in addition to the 55 miners it recently said it would let go in Utah and Nevada, the 22 at its Kanowna mine in central Western Australia, and the 35 people employed at its Greenfields exploration office that it’s abandoning.
Barrick isn’t alone in needing to gain control over costs through workforce reductions. Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM ) announced recently that it will eliminate a third of the positions in Colorado, and Australia’s Newcrest Mining is closing its Brisbane office in a bid to reduce by 20% its overall spending costs following 150 layoffs that included its Melbourne offices earlier this year.
Cliffs Natural Resources (NYSE: CLF ) will also initiate a new round of summer layoffs affecting 350 workers at its iron ore operations, uranium miner Uranium One is letting go of 26 workers, and while Vedanta Resources had planned to layoff more than 2,000 miners at its Zambian Konkola copper mines, it thought better of it after the government threatened to seize its operations.
Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor
via The Incredible Shrinking Mining Sector.
Related Posts
Barrick Gold Corp / To lay off up to a third of staff
Barrick Gold Corp will lay off up to a third of its corporate staff at its headquarters in Toronto and other offices, sources said, as the world’s top bullion producer intensifies a downsizing plan amid a slump in the price of gold. Continue reading »
Mining / South Africa / Amplats to cut 14,000 jobs | eNCA
Anglo American’s platinum arm is expected to cut 14,000 mining jobs as part of the loss-making business. According to industry sources, the mining company is under pressure from South African government. Anglo American Platinum, the world’s top platinum producer, is battling to restore profits and is planning to cut back production and mothball two mines … Continue reading »
Scotland / Government sets up mining jobs taskforce
A Scottish government taskforce has been set up to try to retain jobs at a collapsed coal-mining firm. Scottish Coal, which operated six open cast mines across Scotland, announced nearly 600 redundancies when it went into liquidation last week. Energy minister Fergus Ewing said the Scottish Open Cast Mining Taskforce would do everything it could … Continue reading »
Australia / Coal miners jobs cut by Peabody and Glencore Xstrata
Peabody Energy Corp and Glencore Xstrata will cut around 500 mining jobs in Australia, a company official and trade publication says, as a global glut in coal supply pushes down pricesContinue reading »
Kentuky and Virginia / More than 800 coal jobs
After many rounds of layoffs, hundreds of coal mining jobs are coming back to the region. Officials with Professional Contracting say they are currently looking to fill more than 800 jobs. Ever since Alpha Natural Resources idled four mines and laid off hundreds of workers in January, Its been the word about town. “There was … Continue reading »
Australia / Mining / Newcrest axes jobs
Australia’s mining sector is facing more job losses and a halt on investment after Newcrest Mining flagged cuts to its workforce. After last week’s dramas when the gold price plummeted at record rates to two-year lows, Newcrest revealed a sharp nearly one-third jump in its costs from a year ago. The company, Australia’s largest goldminer … Continue reading »
Rio close Gove mine | Mining Australia
Rio Tinto may close its Gove alumina mine in an effort to cut costs globally. The decision follows the miner’s announcement it would slash jobs at the site. At the time Frank Willsdon, Pacific’s general manager, explained that Rio is looking at ways to operate the site with fewer people. “Steadily over time, we [want … Continue reading »
Discussion
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
Pingback: Glencore-Xstrata / 450 jobs cut | Job Market Monitor - June 28, 2013
Pingback: Australia / WesTrac cuts 350 jobs | Job Market Monitor - June 28, 2013
Pingback: Australia / About 7000 mining jobs gone | Job Market Monitor - June 29, 2013
Pingback: South Africa’s Sibanye / To cut another 2 000 jobs | Job Market Monitor - August 15, 2013
Pingback: Rio Tinto in Mongolia / 2000 jobs lost | Job Market Monitor - August 16, 2013
Pingback: Anglo Platinum / Job-reduction target cut by 31% – Mining | Moneyweb | Job Market Monitor - August 18, 2013
Pingback: South Africa / Mines cut 23 000 jobs in 12 months | Job Market Monitor - September 18, 2013
Pingback: Amplats / To cut 1,400 jobs | Job Market Monitor - February 3, 2014
Pingback: Coal Miner in US / Jobs are vanishing | Job Market Monitor - February 14, 2014
Pingback: Ghana / 600 jobs cut at Newmont Mines | Job Market Monitor - February 25, 2014
Pingback: Teck to cut 600 jobs as profit drops, defers Quintette coal mine restart – The Globe and Mail | Job Market Monitor - April 22, 2014
Pingback: BHP and Rio Tinto in Australian – Further job cuts to come | Job Market Monitor - May 27, 2014
Pingback: BHP Billiton – The worlds largest miner cuts 500 jobs, and more to come | Job Market Monitor - June 25, 2014
Pingback: Mining in Australia – Unemployment double national rate | Job Market Monitor - September 10, 2014
Pingback: Mining – Anglo American to cut about 60,000 jobs by 2017 | Job Market Monitor - December 10, 2014