BHP Billiton to cut jobs in South Australia to 'safely reduce costs'
BHP Billiton has revealed it is planning to cut jobs at its South Australian operations in order to build a "viable business".
The company has yet to confirm how many jobs will go, but said some workers would be redeployed at either Olympic Dam in outback SA or elsewhere in BHP's operations.
"Over the past few months, Olympic Dam has been focused on identifying opportunities to safely reduce costs in order to build a strong, viable business," a company statement said.
"As a result, a number of positions will be made redundant, however the impact of these redundancies will be minimised through some redeployments opportunities.
"We are unable to determine a net figure for workforce redundancies until the redeployment process is completed later this year."
The spokesperson said alternative roles would be offered where possible, including roles to support growth ambitions in its southern mine area and elsewhere.
SA Opposition Leader Steven Marshall said he was told 300 jobs would go.
"The job losses are in the vicinity of 300, of which they hope a hundred of those will be able to be taken up with the Olympic Dam expansion plan," he said.
Premier Jay Weatherill said it was natural to see a drop in the state's mining workforce, given the drop in commodity prices.
He said the company was still committed to its SA operations.
"It's still the largest underground mine in the nation," Mr Weatherill said.
"Many thousands of people are employed there but big changes are occurring up there and obviously that's going to be very concerning for the families that are being told."
Iron ore company Arrium last week said it planned to cut 600 jobs in SA.
Roxy Downs Council optimistic of town recovery
The Roxby Downs Council administrator Bill Boehm, in SA's far north, said he was optimistic the town would recover from the job losses announced for the nearby Olympic Dam mine.
He said the news was a blow but accepted it as a part of the economic cycle typical of the mining industry.
"It's been on the cards for a while given the state of the mining industry," Mr Boehm said.
"The community's well prepared to a point that there would be some changes, so we're all very disappointed but also realistic about the operation of the company.
"So the short term is not so great but the medium term and going forward is much brighter."
