WA news LIVE: Hancock Iron Ore slashes hundreds of jobs at Pilbara mines

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Hancock Iron Ore slashes hundreds of jobs at Pilbara mines

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Hundreds of jobs have been slashed at Hancock Iron Ore’s Pilbara operations amid rising tensions with the unions.

The decision comes a year after a merger between Roy Hill and Atlas Iron, which placed both under the unified banner of Hancock Iron Ore.

Hancock Iron Ore declined to confirm the number of jobs lost, with the Australian Financial Review reporting it was thought to be between 300 and 500, or as much as 10 per cent of its 5000-strong workforce.

In a statement, Hancock Iron Ore said it had reduced mining activity at the Roy Hill mine, while still maintaining a production rate over 63 million tonnes per annum.

“Hancock Iron Ore has recently completed its annual life of mine planning, identifying opportunities to optimise how ore is mined, processed and blended across its operations,” the company said in a statement.

“We continuously look at optimising our mine plan and the latest iteration extends our life of mine by 10 years, maximising how much of the orebody we can turn into product and reduce the amount of waste we mine.”