Mineral Resources cuts workers at Osborne Park HQ as unions circle the Onslow haul road after shutdown

Mineral Resources has cut 15 white-collar workers from its Osborne Park headquarters, saying it was focused on “operational efficiencies”. The redundancies — made in recent days — were from MinRes’ asset management division. The West Australian understands the asset management redundancies relate to the maintenance and deployment of MinRes’ heavy equipment, such as dump trucks. The move comes as MinRes faces problems with different a type of truck. The Onslow haul road last week experienced its sixth road train rollover in six months. “MinRes constantly reviews our organisational structure to ensure efficiency and alignment with the requirements of our mining operations,” a company spokesman said. “As previously outlined, construction continues to wind down at Onslow Iron and there has been a strong focus on operational efficiency at our lithium sites.” The Chris Ellison-led MinRes in August culled more than 100 employees from its head office and in the following months rolled out sweeping cuts across its operations, particularly on the lithium side, which claimed upwards of 1000 roles. MinRes is paying $230m to fix the damaged $2.6b Onslow haul road and last week WA’s workplace safety watchdog forced haulage on the 147km thoroughfare to a temporary halt after a sixth jumbo truck since August toppled over. Unions seized on safety concerns at the Onslow road to sow the seeds for a collective bargaining campaign. The Western Mine Workers Alliance — a joint venture between the Australian Workers’ Union and the Mining and Energy Union — took to social media on Tuesday to say its focus was on “ensuring MinRes make the road safe for use”, adding that it was also “ensuring members are not financially disadvantaged through no fault of their own.” Two truck-driving contractors at the Onslow road have claimed to The West they were not paid during the three-day stoppage. The Transport Workers Union said it was “keeping a watchful eye” on the road and had made inquiries on the issues.