Mining giant Mineral Resources has announced plans to shut down its Yilgarn iron ore hub by the year’s end in a move expected to affect up to 1000 employees after the operation was deemed no longer financially viable.
In an announcement to the market on Wednesday, the $12 billion Osborne-Park headquartered company said the decision was the product of a lengthy review and impacted by the limited life across the five operating mines and the capital required to develop new resources.
Mineral Resources boss Chris Ellison.
A staged ramp down of the operations will take place over the next six months, with shipments to cease and the mines — which span 220 kilometres of the Goldfields region — to transition into care and maintenance in 2025.
It is understood staff were advised of the plan today.
MinRes has vowed to work to redeploy staff affected, with as many as 800 job vacancies amid the ramp up of its Onslow iron project.
Mineral Resources’ billionaire founder Chris Ellison said the “prudent but difficult” decision had not been made lightly and had followed years of investment to extend the life of the operations.
The iron ore, lithium and gas company has operated in the region for more than a decade, running the Koolyanobbing, Parker Range, and Carina mines.
In 2018, it took over US mining giant Cleveland-Cliffs’ operations in Koolyanobbing after striking an eleventh-hour deal with the state government which saved the jobs of hundreds of workers, including those at Esperance Port.
The company has since exported almost 45 million tonnes via Esperance Port and spent $4.2 billion running the Yilgarn operation, located about 50 kilometres north-northeast of Southern Cross.
Mineral Resources is one of the most valuable companies on the ASX, valued at almost $12 billion.
It currently ranks as the fifth-largest iron ore producer in the country.
Just last month, Ellison told the Macquarie Australia Conference in Sydney the company intended to have a 10,000-strong workforce by December.
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