Layoffs are happening at Vale Base Metals (VBM). The company confirmed Wednesday morning that "staff reductions" are being initiated throughout the company. The company said low commodity prices are a key reason.
Sudbury.com did reach out to the miner to determine the local impact but the company refused to get into specifics, instead providing an emailed statement from Jeff Gaulin, Vale’s general manager of corporate affairs.
"We have initiated staff reductions across all our corporate functions around the world," Gaulin said in the email.
"This means good people leaving our company in every corporate function, such as human resources, communications, finance, etc., at both our corporate centres as well as these staff located at our operations.”
The statement said discussions about the changes are underway with company employees.
"Out of respect to these colleagues, we won’t comment further on these changes until that process is complete. We had to undertake this action to be competitive in an increasingly challenging market for mining," said the company.
One of the reasons given was the continued low price of nickel, which is hovering at just over US$7 per pound on the London Metal Exchange (LME).
"We are facing incredible challenges in mining with sustained low commodity prices, increasing costs, softening demand for electric vehicles, unstable global economic growth, and increasing trade tensions," the statement reads.
Reuters reported the current price per tonne of nickel on the LME is roughly at US $16,500 compared to March of 2022, when nickel hit an all-time high of US $55,000 per metric ton.
Len Gillis covers mining and health care for Sudbury.com.
