Employees at Anglo American’s Drayton mine were today notified that following a review of the remaining resources at the Hunter Valley mine site and the lack of certainty for Drayton South, reductions to the workforce would be necessary and some redundancies would occur.
The 30-year-old Drayton mine is due to run out of mineable coal reserves this year and following the New South Wales Planning and Assessment Committee’s decision not to approve Drayton South last year, current staff levels could not be maintained and
approximately 45 redundancies would be necessary.
Anglo American Executive Head of Open Cut Mining, Mark Heaton, said the company had reviewed the current reserves in Drayton and unfortunately redundancies were unavoidable at this time, although the aim would be to keep as many jobs for as long as possible.
“We had hoped the Drayton South project would have given smooth continuity of employment for our 500 workers and 140 local suppliers,” Mr Heaton said.
“However, we now find ourselves in the difficult position of balancing depleting coal levels with extending the mine’s life for as long as possible without approval for Drayton South.
“The redundancy positions will be subject to the business needs and will be determined with full consultation with employees and our employee representatives,” Mr Heaton said.
Anglo American will persevere to secure approval for a revised Drayton South project, which reduces the mine size by 25 per cent to extract 75 million tonnes of coal resources to produce a standard Newcastle export thermal coal product over the next
15 years.
ENDS
Contact: Jacqui Strambi – 0439 774 526
Notes to editors:
Anglo American is one of the world’s largest mining companies, is headquartered in the UK and listed on the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges. Our portfolio of mining businesses meets our customers’ changing needs and spans bulk commodities
– iron ore and manganese, metallurgical coal and thermal coal; base metals and minerals – copper, nickel, niobium and phosphates; and precious metals and minerals – in which we are a global leader in both platinum and diamonds. At Anglo American,
we are committed to working together with our stakeholders – our investors, our partners and our employees – to create sustainable value that makes a real difference, while upholding the highest standards of safety and responsibility across all
our businesses and geographies. The company’s mining operations, pipeline of growth projects and exploration activities span southern Africa, South America, Australia, North America, Asia and Europe.
www.angloamerican.com.au