Fortescue’s loss of 700 jobs is another of the growing toll of mining casualties in Western Australia. According to Rebecca Tomkinson, head of the Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA, this loss reflects the reality of expensive mining in Australia.
Ms Tomkinson said there was plenty of “reason for positivity” and praised the sector’s “world-leading” innovations to meet upcoming carbon reduction commitments, but warned that ultimately more levers would need to be pulled to keep costs down for Western Australia’s miners.
“The reality is that the cost of living in Australia is relatively high and competition is increasing globally,” she said.
“Competitive policy frameworks are not a nice-to-have – they are a must. Maintaining pressure on operating costs and the costs of key inputs such as energy and increasing productivity requires discipline.”
Her comments follow a massive wave of layoffs announced by Andrew Forrest’s iron ore and energy giant Fortescue on Wednesday afternoon as it backed away from its commitment to green hydrogen.
More than 700 of the group’s employees will be laid off worldwide by the end of this month. Fortescue has not clarified whether the job cuts will take place in the metals or energy sectors.
“It’s a company that is aggressively pursuing its decarbonization strategy,” Jarden analyst Jon Bishop told Bloomberg.
“Although they did not specify which business units were affected, that part of the company continued to burn a lot of capital.”
The layoffs will affect office workers rather than permanent or field workers, as has already been the case with thousands of other jobs that have been eliminated following the closure of numerous nickel, iron ore and alumina mines since the end of 2023.
The biggest incident occurred last week when BHP Nickel West announced it would close operations for three years, resulting in the loss of 3,000 jobs in Kalgoorlie, Perth and Kwinana. However, the company has said it plans to restart operations in 2027.
In June, the ministry announced it would close its iron ore operation in Yilgarn, leaving 1,000 people in limbo. The company assured at the time that there were 800 vacancies elsewhere in the company.
The decline of the nickel industry in Western Australia had already cost well over 1,000 jobs. The closure of the Alcoa refinery in Kwinana affected a further 1,100 jobs.
Meanwhile, major mining companies, including Fortescue, are fighting back against what they say is a lack of consultation on proposed changes to federal environmental legislation.
“It is vital that governments continue to consult and engage with industry to drive forward reforms that both enable robust and efficient regulation and eliminate unnecessary duplication of administration,” Ms Tomkinson said.
The proposed Nature Positive reforms envisage the establishment of a new national, independent environmental licensing authority.
Fortescue said discussions had been conducted “piecemeal” and had resulted in FMG “and other members of the industry being unable to understand the full impact of the reforms on our business and whether our future projects, decarbonisation efforts and expansions will be approvable under the new legislation”.