PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Unlisted energy provider Alinta Energy on Wednesday confirmed that its Flinders operations would close at the end of March 2016, with mining at the Leigh Creek coal mine, in South Australia, to cease on November 17.
The company had previously flagged the closure of its Port Augusta power stations and the Leigh Creek coal mine, saying that they would not operate beyond March 2018 and could close earlier.
CEO Jeff Dimery said the company had communicated the closure to employees and key stakeholders.
“Our major focus continues to be on working closely to assist our people through this transition period,” he added.
“When we announced our intent to close Flinders operations in June, Alinta Energy committed over A$3.5-million in funding to provide a suite of transitional support services to our people.
“The allocation of this funding has been split between retraining and reskilling assistance, financial advisory services, career counselling, wellbeing and human resource support, as well as Transition Centres and other job opportunity services.”
This funding was in addition to the A$75-million of redundancy benefits and entitlement packages that would be distributed to employees across the Flinders business.
Some 440 employees would be affected by Alinta’s decision to suspend operations at the Northern and Playford B power stations, as well as the Leigh Creek mine.
Alinta said the company would continue to work closely with the South Australian government to achieve the best outcome for its people and the surrounding communities as the business transitions to closure.