Kagara lays off 130 employees after posting A$48.9 million loss

Queensland base metal miner, Kagara Mining, said 130 of its staff were becoming redundant after the company posted an A$48.9 million loss in the first half of its financial year.

Kagara’s stock plummeted 38.71% on the ASX to 19 cents a share. After the layoffs, the company’s headcount will be reduced to 350.

The company blamed its woes on a high Australian dollar, sharply rising cash costs, and falling commmodity prices.

“In Australian dollar terms, the median realized zinc price fell between periods by approximately 20% while copper price fell by approximately 11%, reflecting the combined effects of price and FX impacts,” said the company in a statement.

While the company retrenches, it is putting its Mungana underground mine on care and maintenance, scaling back its exploration expenditures and cutting costs across all its businesses.

Kagara Ltd is a Australian mining company (ASX ticker: KZL) with copper, zinc-lead and nickel operations in North Queensland and Western Australia. and a strong project development and exploration pipeline.