A heavy price to pay: Glencore to close Tahmoor coal mine

Glencore, one of the world largest mining companies with operations in Europe, Asia, North America and Australia, has announced that it will close its underground coal mine Tahmoor.

The news of the closure of the Australian mine comes after a period of significant downturn in coal prices, with operations stopping as early as 2016.

“The decision has been made as a result of continued low prices in global coal markets, which has meant the economic return from reserves still available at Tahmoor are not sufficient to warrant the investment required to mine them," Glencore said in a statement.

Tahmoor employs around 350 workers at the mine, all of which will lose their jobs as the company will reduce its workforce over the next 18 months.

“We appreciate this will be a difficult time for our employees and we will be putting support services in place to assist them, including investigation of opportunities for redeployment at other Glencore coal operations,” the statement added.

Metallurgical coal prices across the world have dropped from over $300 a tonne in 2011, to close to $94 per tonne this year.

The Tahmoor mine, situated in New South Wales, has been operating for over 20 years and produced over 2 million tonnes of metallurgical coal in 2015.

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