Current:Home > InvestMontana miner backs off expansion plans, lays off 100 due to lower palladium prices -Capitatum
Montana miner backs off expansion plans, lays off 100 due to lower palladium prices
View
Date:2025-04-13 03:22:06
The owner of two precious metals mines in south-central Montana is stopping work on an expansion project and laying off about 100 workers because the price of palladium fell sharply in the past year, mine representatives said Thursday.
Sibanye-Stillwater announced the layoffs Wednesday at the only platinum and palladium mines in the United States, near Nye, Montana, and other Sibanye-owned facilities in Montana, including a recycling operation. Another 20 jobs have gone unfilled since October, officials said.
Another 187 contract workers — about 67% of the mining contract workers at the mine — will also be affected. Some contract work has been phased out over the past couple of months, said Heather McDowell, a vice president at Sibanye-Stillwater.
The restructuring is not expected to significantly impact current mine production or recycling production, but will reduce costs, the company said.
Palladium prices have since fallen from a peak of about $3,000 an ounce in March 2022 to about $1,000 per ounce now. Platinum prices also have fallen, but not as dramatically.
The company can still make money working on the west side of the Stillwater mine at Nye with the current palladium prices, but the expansion on the east side is not cost effective right now, McDowell said.
Platinum is used in jewelry and palladium is used in catalytic converters, which control automobile emissions.
South Africa-based Sibanye bought the Stillwater mines in 2017 for $2.2 billion. The Montana mines buoyed the company in subsequent years at a time when it was beset by strikes and a spate of worker deaths at its South Africa gold mines.
Over the next several years as platinum and palladium prices rose, Stillwater sought to expand into new areas and added roughly 600 new jobs at its mines, according to Department of Labor data.
On Tuesday, the Forest Service gave preliminary approval to an expansion of the company’s East Boulder Mine that will extend its life by about a dozen years. The proposal has been opposed by environmental groups that want safeguards to prevent a catastrophic accidental release of mining waste into nearby waterways.
McDowell said there are 38 jobs open at the East Boulder Mine and the company hopes some Stillwater workers who were laid off will apply for those positions. It’s about a two-hour drive from the Stillwater Mine to the East Boulder Mine, she said.
The Montana AFL-CIO, the Department of Labor and Industry and unions across the state are working to help those who were laid off to file claims for unemployment benefits and to find new work, AFL-CIO Executive Secretary Jason Small said Thursday.
The Sibanye-Stillwater Mine was the site of a contract miner’s death on Oct. 13. Noah Dinger of Post Falls, Idaho, died when he got caught in the rotating shaft of a mine that bolts wire panels onto the stone walls of an underground area to prevent rock from falling during future mining, officials said.
___
Associated Press writer Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, contributed to this report.
veryGood! (515)
Related
- Questlove charts 50 years of SNL musical hits (and misses)
- Jon Bon Jovi named MusiCares Person of the Year. How he'll be honored during Grammys Week
- No need to avoid snoozing: Study shows hitting snooze for short period could have benefits
- Fugees rapper claims lawyer's use of AI wrecked his case, requests new trial
- Trump's 'stop
- More than 300 arrested in US House protest calling for Israel-Hamas ceasefire
- The Best Barbie Halloween Costume Ideas: Everything You Need to Look Plastic and Fantastic
- France bestows further honor on former United Nations ambassador and Atlanta mayor Andrew Young
- South Korean president's party divided over defiant martial law speech
- Greg Norman has 'zero' concerns about future of LIV Golf after PGA Tour-Saudi agreement
Ranking
- 'Squid Game' without subtitles? Duolingo, Netflix encourage fans to learn Korean
- Magnitude 3.5 earthquake shakes near Reno, Nevada, the second quake in two days
- Woman whose body was found in a car’s trunk in US had left South Korea to start anew, detective says
- Erin Foster Accuses Chad Michael Murray of Cheating on Her With Sophia Bush
- Federal hiring is about to get the Trump treatment
- Israel-Hamas war fuels anger and protests across the Middle East amid fears of a wider conflict
- Federal forecasters predict warm, wet US winter but less snow because of El Nino, climate change
- Lupita Nyong’o and Boyfriend Selema Masekela Break Up After One Year of Dating
Recommendation
All That You Wanted to Know About She’s All That
Marlon Wayans says he is being unfairly prosecuted after being by racially targeted by gate agent
Garcelle Beauvais teams with Kellogg Foundation for a $90M plan to expand ‘Pockets of Hope’ in Haiti
Holiday Gifts Under $50 That It's Definitely Not Too Soon To Buy
The Louvre will be renovated and the 'Mona Lisa' will have her own room
Surprise! Taylor Swift drops live version of 'Cruel Summer', 'pride and joy' from 'Lover'
Republicans are facing death threats as the election for speaker gets mired in personal feuds
Peckish neighbors cry fowl but mom seeks legal exception for emotional support chickens