In June Glencore flagged that redundancies could occur after it finished acquiring Rio’s 50.1% operating stake of the mine under a $US1.02 billon ($A1.01 billion) deal struck last year.
The key outcome of Glencore’s subsequent operational review was that 100 jobs would go from the mine by October, with the news first broken to the workforce on Monday.
“The Australian coal industry continues to face significant challenges including low coal prices, high input costs and a resilient Australian dollar,” Glencore said.
“To manage these factors Glencore has focused on reducing costs and maximising efficiencies across our business in the face of falling margins.
“The mining complex will continue to support a workforce of more than 600 after the changes are implemented.
“Despite the current challenges, the mine remains an important part of our coal portfolio and we do not expect that these changes will impact on Clermont’s annual coal production, which is expected to be around 13 million tonnes by end of 2014.”
Glencore is also looking at redeployment opportunities.
“Where vacancies exist, we will explore options for redeployment across our Australian coal operations as well as putting in place support services for affected employees and their families,” the diversified miner said.
Located 15km north of Clermont town and near the giant Blair Athol mine it was designed to replace, the Clermont mine exported its first shipment of coal in May 2010 and had an estimated mine life of 17 years at the time.
