Up to 116 jobs are expected to go in mines near Whyalla in South Australia the latest round of redundancies linked to steelworks operator GFG Alliance.
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00:00Mine owner GFG Alliance says with changes coming to the type of iron ore being extracted,
00:08fewer workers are needed for now in South Australia's Eyre Peninsula.
00:12The company, which also owns the Wyalla Steelworks, says it's transitioning away from hematite
00:17mining and is shifting its focus to a greener future to mining magnetite ore.
00:22That means up to 116 jobs will be shed by contractors from mid-October, and it comes
00:27after an earlier wave of job cuts at the mine in May when 56 positions were dropped
00:33and after 48 white-collar jobs were also axed just last month.
00:38The local Labor MP Eddie Hughes has criticised the move and says these job losses are going
00:43to deeply affect the community in and around Wyalla.
00:47And he also says he's concerned about how GFG is running its businesses.
00:51The steelworks furnace was offline for nearly four months earlier this year after it cooled
00:56down too much following maintenance, and that saw many of the 1,100 employees with
01:01up to 30% less pay until the steelworks became fully operational again in July.
01:07Just earlier this week, the steelworks also announced it would be cutting costs by reducing
01:12some of those maintenance works, and the size of some debts linked to GFG's upper Spencer
01:17Gulf businesses have recently been raised under parliamentary privilege.
01:22In a statement to the ABC, the company says it's invested more than a billion dollars
01:27into its Wyalla operations since taking over the plant in 2017.
01:32A spokesperson says these changes are set to continue over the coming months, which
01:36could mean more uncertainty for the community in Wyalla.