Several Canadian mines owned and operated by Placer Dome (TSE) will be restructured in order to reduce operating costs and meet existing production targets with fewer employees.
The initiative was not unexpected — particularly in light of current low gold prices — as Placer President Tony Petrina had previously warned that productivity improvements and cost-cutting might be required to ensure the economic viability of some of the company’s higher-cost underground mines in Canada.
Art Brown, Placer’s vice-president of Canada operations, said the company’s six Canadian gold mines are now budgeted to produce 750,000 oz. gold this year with 1,625 employees after reductions, compared with 1989 production of 711,000 oz. gold produced with 2,184 employees.
The company’s Canadian workforce will be reduced by a total of 214 employees through early retirements and layoffs at Ontario and Quebec mines, and the planned closure of the Equity Silver mine near Houston, B.C. The work restructuring involves the loss of 99 jobs at the Campbell gold mine in Ontario, and 80 jobs at the Sigma gold mine in Val d’Or, Que. At Equity Silver, 35 employees are being laid off as part of downsizing pending closure because of depletion of the deposit after 12 years of operation. At Campbell, 14 employees were offered early retirement and 85 were laid off. Sigma currently employs 386 people, down from 409 in 1991, and aims to operate with 300 employees in the future. The latest reduction (of 80 employees) included 57 employees offered early retirement.
Placer Dome produced a total of 1.7 million oz. gold in 1991, most of it from bulk tonnage operations outside of Canada.
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