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Transnational mining giant BHP Billiton warned yesterday it would be shedding jobs in South Australia to maximise profits.
The prices of oil, iron ore and copper are at their lowest levels since 2009, piling the pressure on firms to maintain shareholder payouts.
“Over the past few months, Olympic Dam has been focused on identifying opportunities to safely reduce costs in order to build a strong, viable business,” BHP said.
“As a result, a number of positions will be made redundant.”
The company claimed it was not able to provide an estimate of job losses.
But South Australia opposition leader Steven Marshall said that 300 jobs would go, although up to a 100 losses would be absorbed by expansion elsewhere.
BHP lifted its full-year profit 23 per cent to £9.16 billion in August last year.
It paid a final dividend of 41p per share, up from 39p a year earlier.
