BHP cuts thermal coal jobs at Mount Arthur

Spanish Market: Coal
04/07/14

UK-Australian resources firm BHP Billiton has cut 163 jobs from its Mount Arthur mine in an effort to boost the profitability of its Australian thermal coal business following a drop in coal prices and a stubbornly high Australian dollar.

Mount Arthur, in New South Wales' (NSW) Hunter valley, is the main producing mine in BHP Billiton's NSW thermal coal business, which exported 13.27mn t in the nine months to 31 March compared with 13.18mn t in the same period a year earlier. Mount Arthur has production capacity of 16mn t/yr.

"The coal industry continues to experience difficult market conditions, including continuing low coal prices and a high Australian dollar and in order to remain globally competitive, the cost base of our Mount Arthur Coal operations must be reset," said BHP's NSW energy coal asset president Peter Sharpe.

The latest BHP job cuts follow the removal of around 427 contractors from the Goonyella coking coal mine In Queensland. In February the company cuts 230 jobs from its Saraji coking coal mine in the Bowen basin. It has already closed the Norwich Park and Gregory coking coal mines in the past 18 months.

km/rjd

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