Ravensthorpe is to lose a further 100 local jobs, possibly more, as the owners of Mt Cattlin mine announced plans to place it on care and maintenance in mid-2025.
Shire president Tom Major said the move came as no surprise.
“They have got about six months’ worth of ore that’s easy to mine in the open cut phase,” Mr Major said.
“Then wind it up and go on care and maintenance until the lithium price improves.”
Arcadium Lithium, which is listed on both the New York and Australia stock exchanges, issued a statement saying it did not intend to close Mt Cattlin “at this time”.
“Care and Maintenance will keep the mine and processing facilities in a position to potentially resume operations when market conditions become more favorable,” it says.
“Arcadium Lithium will continue to explore the viability of underground mining at the Mt Cattlin site, which could potentially extend the remaining mine life.”
Mr Major said Arcadium had originally planned to continue the open cut phase until mid-2026.
“It’s disappointing but not surprising,” he said.
“Our community’s thoughts go out to the workers and their families who will be affected.
“It will have a significant impact on the bakery, the pub, the child care, the school, the sporting teams.”
Following the closure of First Quantum Minerals’ nickel mine just eight months ago, 2024 has been an eventful year for what had been WA’s sixth largest mining shire.
“Less than 12 months ago we had Arcadium plan to build a new 250-man camp, as you see things can change pretty quickly,” Mr Major said.
“We don’t have any more operating mines in Ravy now so I won’t be back in the media talking about any more mines closing.
“The shire will continue to work with Arcadium to get the beast outcomes for the community and continue to focus on our tourism and economic growth strategy.”
The Weekender understands between eight and 10 ships were expected to transport 120 kilotonnes of spodumene — lithium ore — from Esperance Port this financial year, with a Southern Ports spokesperson making a similar statement.
“Southern Ports was advised by Arcadium Lithium of its difficult decision to place its Mt Cattlin operations into care and maintenance during 2025,” she said.
“We will work with Arcadium through this transition period to mitigate the impact of this decision on our Port of Esperance operations.”
Arcadium had engaged mining contractor NRW Holdings to conduct most of the operations.
While NRW is yet to respond to our enquiries, reports in the media differ about the number of workers the big contractor employed at the mine, with Mr Major putting it at “almost 100” and other news media reporting between 140 and 200 local jobs.
“We have a significant impact on the community, I think we lost 300 local jobs in the FQM mine closure,” he said.
“We are a resilient community, and we have just got to focus on diversifying our economy from a single industry.
“We have got a strong agricultural area which has always been our strength and then tourism is a growth industry we can always keep focussing on.”
Arcadium Lithium president and CEO Paul Graves said the company would continue to explore the viability of underground mining at the Mt Cattlin site, which could potentially extend the remaining mine life.
“Unfortunately, production at Mt Cattlin beyond the current stage of the open pit cannot be justified in the current price environment for spodumene,” he said.
“We will maintain open and transparent dialogue with all of our stakeholders while supporting our employees and communities in Western Australia during this transition period.”
Meanwhile, Mr Major said there were two potential mines “in the pipeline”, Medallion metals gold and the International Graphite mine, which could generate about 50-100 local jobs each within Ravensthorpe Shire.
