The job situation in South Australia has improved in the mining sector with mining contractor Thiess being hired to work on OZ Minerals’ Prominent Hill mine.
Thiess is a subsidiary of Leighton Holdings which has been awarded a six year contract worth $1 billion to extend the operations at the copper and gold mine in South Australia.
The work will see 170 additional employees joining those already at work on the mine. The workforce in the open pit mining operation will also eventually go up to 550. Thiess was first hired in 2006 to construct the infrastructure of the mine. Now it will mine Prominent Hill along with Oz Minerals till 2018.
Thiess’ Australian Mining Executive General Manager, Michael Wright said that they had been very successful with their operations at Prominent Hill, with a strong focus placed on employing and training local people, and on ensuring they had a diverse workforce with a strong culture.
The Prominent Hill Mine is said to have estimated resources worth 2.68 million metric tons of copper and 6.3 million ounces of gold. Oz Minerals intends to set up a second underground mine along with the open pit mine as the mining operations progress.