Up to 116 jobs to be cut in mines around Whyalla in Upper Spencer Gulf

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Up to 116 jobs are expected to go in mines near Whyalla in South Australia the latest round of redundancies linked to steelworks operator GFG Alliance.

Transcript

00:00Mine owner GFG Alliance says with changes coming to the type of iron ore being extracted,

00:08fewer workers are needed for now in South Australia's Eyre Peninsula.

00:12The company, which also owns the Wyalla Steelworks, says it's transitioning away from hematite

00:17mining and is shifting its focus to a greener future to mining magnetite ore.

00:22That means up to 116 jobs will be shed by contractors from mid-October, and it comes

00:27after an earlier wave of job cuts at the mine in May when 56 positions were dropped

00:33and after 48 white-collar jobs were also axed just last month.

00:38The local Labor MP Eddie Hughes has criticised the move and says these job losses are going

00:43to deeply affect the community in and around Wyalla.

00:47And he also says he's concerned about how GFG is running its businesses.

00:51The steelworks furnace was offline for nearly four months earlier this year after it cooled

00:56down too much following maintenance, and that saw many of the 1,100 employees with

01:01up to 30% less pay until the steelworks became fully operational again in July.

01:07Just earlier this week, the steelworks also announced it would be cutting costs by reducing

01:12some of those maintenance works, and the size of some debts linked to GFG's upper Spencer

01:17Gulf businesses have recently been raised under parliamentary privilege.

01:22In a statement to the ABC, the company says it's invested more than a billion dollars

01:27into its Wyalla operations since taking over the plant in 2017.

01:32A spokesperson says these changes are set to continue over the coming months, which

01:36could mean more uncertainty for the community in Wyalla.

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