Taseko lays off 75 workers at Gibraltar Mines

From WL Tribune:

Taseko Mines Limited has announced that 75 employees at its Gibraltar Mine will be laid off effective Jan. 13, 2009.

The company informed the employees at early Thursday afternoon.

“Concluding there was no other choice was agonizing,” Taseko vice-president of corporate affairs Brian Battison said. “But lower costs are essential to keeping the mine operating.”

The announcement comes after the mine, 65 kilometres north of Williams Lake, suspended non-essential spending, and stopped on-site contract work six weeks ago.

“We did a lot of things before we had to take this next step,” Battison said. The mine currently employs 469 people.

Russell Hallbauer, president and CEO of Taseko, said that in the last 24 months, the company has invested $250 million into Gibraltar Mine to reduce operating costs and to ensure it could operate at low copper price levels.

Manpower levels during the construction period increased as the company worked on the concentrator modernization and mine expansion programs. Now that the concentrator and mining fleet are upgraded and more efficient, the size of the work force is inconsistent with the company's new operating efficiencies, he said.

Hallbauer said the company has taken a conservative approach to its expansion plans by not incurring any long-term debt, and its aim is to keep Gibraltar Mine profitable and viable should the copper cycle go back to lower than US$1.50/lb.

Battison said the company expects Gibraltar to operate for the long term, due to the $250-million investment, lower costs for fuel and steel, and zero debt.

“We expect other copper mines in the world will close before we do, which will reduce supply and raise prices,” he said.

"The two top priorities at Taseko Mines are to keep the Gibraltar mine operating and competitive, and to get Prosperity permitted and ready to build.”

Alex Pannu, director of public affairs for the Christian Labour Association of Canada, says the union is disappointed with the layoffs, but says they are a better alternative to shutting the mine down.

"I think you have to look at the economy around the world to see the pressures that everyone is under," Pannu says. "The situation here is obviously not the best, but we think they are making the best of a bad situation."

The union plans to work with its members to provide referral services and to make sure the company ensures that seniority is recognized before laying workers off.

"We're hoping the economic situation will improve so that they can rehire most of these workers," he says, adding that the union represents nearly 300 employees at the mine.