AAP reported that Xstrata Coal will slash about 280 jobs under restructure plans at two coal mines in New South Wales, blaming the redundancies on high costs and low output and commodity prices.

The Swiss mining giant said that it would cut about 122 employees at the Ulan mine north west of Mudgee in the state's central west comprising 94 contractors and 28 permanent employees. The operation currently employs 550 staff including contractors.

Xstrata said that it will also make 158 personnel redundant at its Tahmoor mine south west of Sydney, comprising 57 contractors and 101 permanent staff. This mine presently employs 493 staff including contractors.

Mr Peter Freyberg CEO of Xstrata Coal said that the redundancies were necessary to protect the long term financial viability of the businesses. He said they were aimed at improving efficiencies and realigning employee numbers with the current operating environment.

Mr Freyberg further said that "Tahmoor costs remain too high and production and prices are not strong enough to support our current number of employees. As we realign the Ulan complex, we will resource core mining activities and outsource specialist requirements and irregular peaks to improve efficiencies."

Xstrata said it would begin offering voluntary redundancies to Tahmoor's underground coal handling and processing plant permanent workforce and Ulan's underground permanent workforce.

(Sourced from AAP)