Hundreds of workers at a Broken Hill mine in outback New South Wales face redundancy if its parent company can't find a buyer for the operation.
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00:00 Hundreds of workers at one of Broken Hills mines have been told they likely won't have a job in two weeks time.
00:07 The news came as a surprise to many after they received a text message on Sunday night alerting them to meetings the following morning.
00:14 When they arrived here at the Rasp mine in the city's south they were told operations would be shutting down.
00:19 Some workers involved in the drilling were told yesterday would be their last on site.
00:24 It's believed around 200 staff will be impacted by the closure although the flow on effect of the job losses to the local economy is unknown.
00:32 CBH Resources who run the mine released a statement yesterday saying that their Japanese parent company Toho Zinc are no longer in a position to invest
00:41 and they are actively seeking someone to buy the mine.
00:45 The news came as a surprise to many including local Todd Ferguson who's the head of the mining union.
00:55 But he says despite the shock there is still reason to hope that a company will purchase it following recent renovations.
01:03 As I understand it Rasp is still a viable mine it's just that Toho made the decision to not invest in it.
01:10 With the development they've made recently there is potential for someone to come in and buy it.
01:15 I believe they're actively pursuing to buy it, to source a buyer. So yeah we'll see how it goes.
01:22 While there is still plenty of optimism around the city that a buyer will be found, workers will have an uncertain few weeks ahead
01:29 as they wait until the end of November to find out if they'll be made redundant or not.
01:34 For more information visit www.cbh.gov.au
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