Mt Gibson Iron will close its Koolan Island iron ore mine off Western Australia’s Kimberley coast due to safety concerns after a rockfall at the site’s main pit last week.

The company says the closure will lead to approximately 250 redundancies and the loss of 200 contractor roles.

In a statement to the ASX, the company said it had determined that “remediating the rockfall-affected area and resuming mining is not viable given the safety risks of future instability and the time and investment required to mitigate such risks especially in the context of the operation’s limited remaining mine life”.

Production from Koolan Island was already scheduled to wrap up around September next year, before the rockfall on October 16. The company says no personnel were injured in the incident.

Mining

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