No surprise mine's shutting down: council
Posted
The mid west Shire of Carnamah says plans to shut down Iluka Resources' Eneabba mine do not come as a surprise.
Iluka Resources yesterday announced it is planning to put the mineral sands project on care and maintenance in June, resulting in up to 40 job losses.
Shire CEO Bill Atkinson says the closure has been expected for some time.
He says while it is disappointing the town of Eneabba is not dependent on the mine.
"Given the buoyancy of the mid west region generally I think Eneabba is well placed to capitalise on medium-term growth," he said.
"Because it's on the Brand Highway and it's very close to the coast.
"So I think that while this a disappointing thing that it probably won't have a significant long-term impact on Eneabba."
The Mines and Petroleum Minister Norman Moore says the closure of the mine is unfortunate and hopes the workers can be redeployed to other operations within the company.
"It's very sad when that happens, quite obviously the mining industry's very much at the whim of the vagaries of the market place," he said.
"I know they've had some difficulties, but hopefully that might turn around. One of the good things about the commodities markets is that it tends to go up and down, hopefully there's an up sometime down the track."
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