MinRes announces shock closure of Bald Hill lithium mine, putting hundreds of WA jobs at risk

The sudden closure of a lithium mine has put the jobs of 300 workers at risk, with world trade prices blamed for this measure.

Mineral Resources Limited (MinRes) announced on Wednesday that it will cease operations at its Bald Hill lithium mine in the Goldfields region of Western Australia, 50km south-west of Kambalda.

The mine will reduce its workforce to just 10 people to help transition the facility into a “care and maintenance closure” starting this week.

In one statement to the ASXthe publicly traded company said it had to halt mining for the lithium-rich mineral spodumene due to the low prices it is currently attracting.

MinRes said the move will “preserve the cash and value of the Bald Hill spodumene ore body for when global lithium market conditions improve.”

The mining company has not ruled out resuming operations on site if lithium prices rise.

Mineral Resources Limited (MinRes) has announced it will cease operations at its lithium mine in Bald, Western Australia (pictured) due to low global lithium prices

“If global lithium prices improve to levels that encourage a Bald Hill restart, recovery to full operation is expected to take four to six weeks,” the report said.

‘During care and maintenance, MinRes will continue to optimize the mine plans, scale and operational structure prior to a future restart.’

About 300 employees affected by the closure will be given ‘priority’ for other roles at the company’s other locations in Western Australia.

The mine will be completed this week and will only have a workforce of ten people

“Where redeployment opportunities are not found, a redundancy process will be followed,” the company statement said.

MinRes expects the last shipment of minerals from Bald Hill to be sold in December.