Atlantic begins laying off staff
Workers at Atlantic's vanadium mine are bracing for the worst as the company yesterday began laying off staff at its fire-devastated processing facility in the Mid West.
It is understood about 240 people work at the site, which was hit by a fire last month that razed the beneficiation plant.
The rebuilding process could take at least nine months. It is understood Atlantic sacked between 20 and 40 workers, with one source suggesting 50 to 100 workers were expected to go over the next week. It is believed many of yesterday's departures were relatively recent hires.
An Atlantic spokesman confirmed the company had made a number of workers redundant. He would not say how many or whether further job losses were expected, saying only the com- pany had made a "small number" redundancies to "prudently manage its business" until the beneficiation plant was rebuilt.
He confirmed the sackings had not extended to Atlantic's senior management.
Executive chairman Michael Minosora resigned last week and was replaced by chief operating officer Daniel Harris.
His departure came only two days after Atlantic's major shareholder and creditor, Indonesian billionaire Anthony Salim's Droxford International, extended the company a new $29.7 million credit line. It coincided with a standstill deal with bondholders owed $US335 million and the receipt of the first instalment of a $100 million insurance claim for Windimurra.
It is unclear how many of Windimurra's staff would remain on to help rebuild the plant, with one former worker suggesting as few as 25 to 50 current employees would be needed to oversee the restoration work.
Atlantic's financial woes had seen workers go unpaid through February, but staff who spoke to _WestBusiness _yesterday said they had received back wages and entitlements would be paid out as part of their redundancy package.
