Nervous wait for Mineral Resources managers as Chris Ellison-led miner moves on 140 job cuts
Senior heads have started to roll at Mineral Resources as part of the unfolding cull of 140 workers flagged by chief executive Chris Ellison at the end of August.
The West Australian understands the chief operating officer of the company’s struggling lithium division has been shown the door as part of headcount reduction, as have managers in the mining services division.
Former Pilbara operations director at Fortescue, Fernando Pereira, was brought in as COO of MinRes lithium as part of a raft of senior hires in 2022.
Camera IconFMG Pilbara operations boss Fernando Pereira. Credit: FMG/FMG
Moves on job cuts comes about a month after MinRes chief executive Chris Ellison revealed approximately 140 staff would be axed from its plush headquarters in Osborne Park between September and the end of the calendar year.
Meanwhile, some 800 workers will have to choose between changing their fly-in, fly-out shifts from two weeks on, two weeks off, to two weeks on, one week off, or putting their hand up for a redundancy.
Changing the roster at its Mt Marion and Wodgina operations would help save about $300 million, MinRes said on September 10.
The gradual shutdown of the Yilgarn iron ore mine, which employs about 1000 people, is due at the end of 2024. And construction at its newest iron ore mine Onslow is also winding up, prompting further uncertainty for blue collar staff.
The Chris Ellison-led miner has been through a rocky 2024 as the two commodities it deals in, lithium and iron ore, go through a downturn in prices.
MinRes’ share price has lost about 48 per cent since January 2024, down from just over $70 to $36.70.
The company has put expansion projects on ice and decided not to give shareholders a final dividend for the first time in 11 years, as revealed in its results for 2024.
“We’ve moved about 140 people out of the Perth office, so there’s going to be a downturn in headcount between now and Christmas,” he told investors and analysts at the time.
So dire was the operating environment that Mr Ellison decried it was “the sh**tiest time” to be running the company.
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