A spokesperson for Anglo American said:
“Since the suspension of longwall mining activities in May, we have continued to support the Grosvenor workforce, to enable us to work through our future plans step by step.
“As part of planning work underway to support the safe restart of longwall operations in the second half of 2021, we have been reviewing our workforce plan to determine the best structure for Grosvenor going forward. As an initial step, over the last month One Key Resources has been seeking expressions of interest from the Grosvenor workforce for voluntary redundancies. Whilst there has been some interest in voluntary redundancies, there are discussions occurring with workforce representatives about how additional reductions can be achieved.
“Over and above what is required in workforce agreements, Anglo American will be providing redundancy benefits to the eligible One Key workforce impacted by the workforce reductions. We are also assessing opportunities to absorb some of the impacted people into other roles at the mine.
“After more than five months since we ceased production, we have reluctantly taken these steps to ensure that the mine can continue to support the majority of its remaining workforce, of around 650 people, and successfully return to safe production next year.”
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Early last month, Anglo American completed a series of workforce briefings at Grosvenor Mine and its other Queensland operations to further update on plans to safely recommence longwall mining at Grosvenor in the second half of 2021 with the backing of data science and technical innovation.
CEO of Anglo American’s Metallurgical Coal business, Tyler Mitchelson, said the company was continuing to prioritise safety in its planning processes for reopening Grosvenor Mine, as well as undertaking broader work across the business to expedite safety-enhancing technical, engineering and data science solutions.
“We are establishing a Met Coal Analytics Centre, in our Brisbane office, which will bring together operational, engineering and data science experts to look at major challenges and opportunities for the future of our mines,” Mr Mitchelson said.
“As the largest underground coal miner in Australia, we are uniquely positioned to leverage our own data and technology to transform the way we analyse data to drive safer operations, better decisions and achieve mining excellence. The first priority for this centre will be in underground operations gas and ventilation management.
“We are also continuing work to improve safety and controls across our mines, including industry-leading work on piloting the use of pressure sensors to cut power to the longwall, and bolstering of our plans for remote operation in our underground mines.”
Mr Mitchelson said the company was also working through a detailed technical roadmap to safely restart longwall mining at Grosvenor in the second half of next year.
Click here for further details https://australia.angloamerican.com/media/press-releases/pr-2020/04-09-2020.