By Peter Milne
The torrent of cheap nickel from Indonesia has claimed more Australian jobs, with Canadian miner First Quantum set to put its Ravensthorpe mine in Western Australia into care and maintenance on Wednesday.
About 330 First Quantum workers got just two days’ notice of the move that will see all production end by late May at the Ravensthorpe Nickel Operation.
The Ravensthorpe mine in southern WA is a major local employer. Credit: AFR
In a statement on Monday the company said it appreciated recent WA government financial relief to the embattled sector, but that this would not have altered today’s decision.
“Despite RNO’s best efforts to maintain operations by transitioning to a new operating strategy that involved ceasing mining activities, processing stockpiles and altering its approach to production, the site is incurring significant current and projected losses,” it said.
The $17 billon company said about 330 employees would be made redundant, and acknowledged the significant impact on them and their families.
Also, about 90 workers for mining contractor MACA are understood to have lost their positions in Ravensthorpe. The Theiss-owned company may be able to redeploy some of them elsewhere.
The nickel operation is the largest employer in Ravensthorpe and nearby Hopetoun. The towns suffered when previous owner BHP shuttered the operation in 2009 after just a year of operation.
While the price for the metal primarily used to make stainless steel, and increasingly in batteries, has recovered in recent weeks, it has not been enough to save Ravensthorpe.
In 2023 the price of nickel fell by about a third while production rose 16 per cent.
The loss of jobs at Ravensthorpe follows a cut of about 90 workers in January when First Quantum halted mining but planned to continue processing its stockpile.
Also this year, Panoramic Resources’ Savannah nickel project in WA’s Kimberley was suspended by administrators with 140 jobs lost and Andrew Forrest’s Wyloo Metals said it would shut its three WA nickel mines it bought less than a year ago for $760 million.
BHP, the giant of nickel in WA, will announce by August the future of its 3000-strong workforce in the Goldfields and Kwinana.
Adrienne LaBombard, chief executive of mining and gas lobby group the Chamber of Minerals and Energy, said some WA miners found it challenging to remain globally competitive.
“The WA resources sector is experiencing significant inflationary pressures that work against us when compared with companies in other jurisdictions,” she said, adding that WA’s competitors also had lower safety, quality and environmental standards to contend with.
“There’s a risk the global energy transition will slip from our grasp and WA will lose opportunities that other countries will willingly seize.”
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