West Australian Miners Brace for Productivity Drop

Western Australian miners say they fear a sharp fall in productivity and lay-offs after power losses following a gas-plant explosion, writes Reuters .

"This is very serious," Reg Howard Smith, head of the state's Chamber of Minerals and Energy, said after crisis talks with some of the world's biggest resources firms, including BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and BP.

"We're seeing some stand-downs of staff occurring and we're still deciding what needs to be done," Smith told Reuters .

Western Australia lost about a third of its energy supplies last week when an explosion crippled a gas-handling plant, run by Apache Corp, on the tiny island of Varanus, about 100km off Australia's northwest coast.

Tim Wall, Managing Director of Apache's Australian unit, said on Sunday he was sticking with an earlier estimate of "months, not weeks" before damage to the plant and associated gas pipelines was repaired and operations could restart.

Western Australia's State Government has been trying to import more diesel from Asia to offset the drop in gas supplies.

BP, which operates a diesel refinery in the state, is already at maximum production.

Western Australia supplies about a third of the world's iron ore, 20 percent of the gold and tens of thousands of tonnes of copper, nickel, zinc, lead and other industrial staples.

By Staff reporter