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BHP Billiton (ASX, NYSE, LON: BHP), the world’s number one miner, has announced another round of job cuts at its massive Olympic Dam copper-uranium-gold project in South Australia.
According to The Australian (subs. required), over 100 staff, made up of mostly service contractors working at the mine, will be laid-off this week.
Although the company has not made an official announcement yet, a BHP spokeswoman told the paper rumours are true and that the exact number of employees is still to be defined.
In a e-mailed statement to the Australian newspaper, she said BHP continued to focus on reducing overheads, operating costs and non-essential expenditures to ensure the Olympic Dam remained competitive in the current environment.
She added the measure was triggered by sustained lower commodity prices and that had “noting to do” with last August’s cancellation of the expansion of the $30 billion mega project, when the team went from 200 down to 50.
The Olympic Dam, Australia’s largest underground mine and one of the largest mines in the world, currently employs over 3,500 people.
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