Including 162 corporate job losses and 63 losses at Huntly East Mine in the Waikato, Solid Energy has shed a total 445 jobs since late August, in reaction to plummeting global coal prices and an expected $200 million slump in revenue this financial year.
Hundreds more jobs, of local contractors and service providers, are expected to be affected or lost from the West Coast and Waikato. Staff were informed of the decision at an early meeting yesterday.
Solid Energy chief executive Dr Don Elder yesterday confirmed it would put the underground Spring Creek Mine into care and maintenance, making the 220 staff at Spring Creek and the nearby Rocky Creek coal handling and processing plant redundant.
In response, Labour leader David Shearer claimed Prime Minister John Key had an "obsession" with wanting to sell state-owned enterprises, which in Solid Energy's case had cost 220 workers their jobs and "shattered the community of Greymouth".
"The Spring Creek miners are a casualty of the Government's insistence on preparing Solid Energy for sale," Mr Shearer said.
National has denied the job losses are part of any sale preparation, saying Solid Energy was now furthest away from any public share sale.
Dr Elder said Solid Energy was "very aware" of the effect its decision would have on the West Coast economy, but given the outlook for international semi-soft coking coal prices, Spring Creek remained uneconomic.
"Solid Energy has committed to work with the community to minimise the impact of winding down the Spring Creek operation and to help staff find new employment," he said in a statement.
At Spring Creek, 16 staff will maintain the mine, while four at Rocky Creek will process coal from Solid Energy's Strongman mine.
Dr Elder said Solid Energy believed Spring Creek still had potential, if or when international market prices strengthened for steel-grade coal, particularly as blend stock for some production from other mines, or as a specialty product.
"For that reason, the company has decided to place the mine into care and maintenance, which preserves future options, rather than closure, which would make it nearly impossible to recover flooded infrastructure and reopen the mine in future," Dr Elder said.
