200 jobs go as lead mine shuts
WA's most controversial mine, the Paroo Station lead operation in the Goldfields, is set to shut for a third time in less than a decade, this time falling victim to collapsing metal prices.
More than 200 jobs will be lost once Paroo Station, 30km west of Wiluna, is placed on care and maintenance next month.
Ivernia, the Canadian owner of the mine, expects to need just 10 to 12 workers to maintain Paroo Station, ensuring a bleak start to the new year for most of its 140 WA employees as well as 75 contractors largely employed by Perth-based MACA.
The writing had been on the wall since just before Christmas when Ivernia announced a strategic review of Paroo Station in light of a lead price that had slumped to 2 1/2 -year lows.
"Despite record production and sales in 2014 and the progress we have made to reduce costs and improve efficiencies at the mine, the current lead price has dropped well below sustainable levels and cannot support profitable ongoing operations," Wayne Richardson, the chief executive of Ivernia and also president of the company's biggest shareholder Enirgi Group, told investors on Friday night.
"To protect shareholder value and conserve the viable deposits of our orebody, the decision has been made to place the mine on care and maintenance until further notice."
It is the third time since 2007 that Ivernia has taken the drastic action, though the first time because of economic reasons.
Ivernia's WA subsidiary Rosslyn Hill Mining, then known as Magellan Metals, attracted national headlines eight years ago following revelations that lead dust had killed birds and endangered children in Esperance, the port Paroo Station cargoes were shipped from.
A forced shutdown of mining during the ensuing public and political storm forced Ivernia to rethink Paroo Station's set-up, with lead cargoes exported through Fremantle when operations resumed in 2009. But the company fell foul of regulators in 2011 when it was found to have breached strict licence conditions, prompting it to again shut Paroo Station until April 2013.
Paroo Station is one of the world's biggest lead mines.
Mr Richardson stressed that Paroo Station was compliant "with all operating permits".
