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View Full Version : BHP closes Ravensthorpe


Toolman101
21st Jan 2009, 03:13
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,6450242,00.gif BHP chief executive Marius Kloppers. Picture: AFP


The world's biggest diversified miner said today it would cut its 101,000 strong global workforce by about 6 per cent in response to world-wide economic slowdown.

“These are very serious types of decisions and we don’t take them lightly, but in the end they are necessary and they are the correct decisions,” BHP Billiton chief financial officer Alex Vanselow told reporters on a conference call.

The announcement to “indefinitely suspend” the Ravensthorpe nickel mine, which was flagged in The Australian on Monday (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,,24928826-5005200,00.html), came as BHP Billiton said the market for its commodities would remain weak and uncertain after unveiling its second-quarter production figures.

BHP blamed the ramp down and suspension of the Ravensthorpe operation in Western Australia on the global economic crisis, which has rapidly deteriorated since the collapsed of US investment bank Lehman Brothers last September caused credit markets to freeze again.

Things look bleak for NJS?:(