First Quantum Minerals’ Ravensthorpe nickel mine to be put on care and maintenance, 330 jobs to go

Another WA nickel domino has fallen to the ongoing price bloodbath with 330 local jobs from the Ravensthorpe mine in the State’s south-east wiped away.

The West Australian understands workers will be briefed on Monday afternoon by First Quantum Minerals’ chief executive Tristan Pascall that the mine’s remaining operations will be wound down starting on Wednesday.

All production will cease by late May.

The Canadian company stopped mining in January to process stockpiles, slashing its workforce by about 30 per cent in the process.

Placing the full operation on care and maintenance will take the total job losses at Ravensthorpe to about 450.

It is believed many of the soon-to-be-culled workers have already voiced their displeasure after they were given assurances in January that processing of the stockpiles would continue for the foreseeable future.

The move comes days after Ravensthorpe posted a $US22 million ($33.5m) loss as ailing nickel prices and high running costs put “significant pressure” on margins.

In a statement, First Quantum Minerals said it was preparing to apply for the State Government’s 50 per cent nickel royalty relief but came to the conclusion it would not have made a “fundamental difference”.

“Despite the Ravensthorpe nickel operation’s best efforts to maintain operations by transitioning to a new operating strategy that involved ceasing mining activities, processing stockpiles and altering another to production, the site is incurring significant current and projected losses,” the company said.

“First Quantum also believes that it is strategically more important to leave the Shoemaker-Levy orebody in-situ and preserve its future value for the company, the region and Australia, rather than process and sell nickel product at a loss.”

The miner is anticipating lower nickel prices “for the next few years” intertwined with higher operating costs.

Ravensthorpe is viewed as WA’s mining bellwether. This wind-down would mark the third time in the past 15 years the mine has had to be mothballed because of weak nickel prices.

The rapid demise of Australia’s nickel industry has been largely centred on WA and already claimed almost 1600 jobs during recent months.

The victims include Panoramic Resources, Wyloo Metals and BHP Nickel West.

BHP is mulling the closure of its WA nickel business, putting 3300 jobs on the chopping block. It expects to make a decision on the fate of its nickel arm in August.

Technological changes have enabled Indonesian producers to efficiently transform low-grade feed into a high-quality product.

This has heaped pressure on prices, pushing them down from above $US30,000 a tonne in early 2023 to less than $US19,200 currently.

More to come ...