International commodities producer and trader Glencore has announced that it plans to close its Tahmoor coal mine in Australia by early 2019 due to low coal prices, according to media reports.
Accordingly, Glencore will begin consultation with the 350 employees at the Tahmoor mine, which has been operating since 1979 and which last year produced 2.1 million mt of metallurgical coal used in steelmaking.
The company said in a statement that the decision has been made as a result of continued low prices in the global coal markets, which has meant the economic return from reserves still available at Tahmoor are not sufficient to warrant the investment required to mine them.