MinRes to put lithium mine on ice, to cut 300 jobs
The company will put its Bald Hill lithium mine in Western Australia under care and maintenance starting this week.
Barrick Gold (TSE:ABX) announced on Monday that it’s shutting down production at the Porgera mine in Papua New Guinea due to drought in the region brought about by the El-Nino weather effect.
Output at the mine which was expected to produce between 400,000 – 500,000 ounces of gold this year, had been halted due to low levels of water in the main reservoir.
Barrick, the world’s top producer of the precious metal, sold 50% of its subsidiary that manages Porgera to China’s Zijin Mining Group Co in a $298 million cash deal in May this year.
The Toronto-based company has been on an aggressive cost-cutting and divestment drive and gold production was expected to fall to between 6.1m – 6.4m ounces this year, even before the Porgera announcement.
Reuters reports the privately held Ok Tedi copper mine in the country was also forced to shut due to low rainfall.
US-based Freeport-McMoRan warned in September that El Nino is disrupting operations at its Grasberg mine in Indonesia leading to reduced concentrate production at the massive gold and copper mine.
