Major Miners Cut Queensland Coal Jobs

Mineweb reported that Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO), Xstrata (LSE:XTA) and BMA, an alliance between BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP) and Mitsubishi (TSE:8058), have all cut, or are planning to cut, contract workers at coal mines in Queensland, Australia.

As quoted in the market news:

Central Queensland News reports 100 workers were cut from BMA’s Gregory Crinum mine and 70 were cut from Rio’s Kestrel-KME operation.

Repeating a now familiar company line, BHP Billiton said rising costs and difficult economic conditions had forced the “tough decisions”.

Central Queensland News reports Rio said its move to cut contractors at Kestrel was intended to adapt to the mine’s “transition phase”.

Last week Xstrata also announced it would be cutting contractor numbers on its coal mines but refused to detail how many workers would go or which sites would be impacted.

Click here to read the full Mineweb report.