Saturday, December 07, 2024

Vale Base Metals to make dozens of job cuts in management cull

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Bloomberg News | December 5, 2024 | 


Vale Base Metals CEO Shaun Usmar. Photo credit: Ben Hider, Vale

Vale SA’s base metals subsidiary will let go of dozens of managers to simplify its corporate structure and improve performance, according to people familiar with the matter.


The job cuts are part of an effort to simplify the firm’s organization and extend greater decision-making power to operational teams, said one of the people, who declined to speak publicly on internal discussions.

Vale Base Metals confirmed the measures on Friday, calling it a “necessary action” to better position the company to withstand market conditions.

“This week we initiated staff changes aimed at making Vale Base Metals more resilient, agile and competitive across our assets for sustained long-term growth,” the Toronto-based subsidiary said in an emailed statement. “This new decentralized structure means that some of our people in non-operating roles will be leaving us.”

Vale Base Metals said it remains committed to its Canadian operations, pointing to this week’s completion of its $2.94 billion expansion project at Voisey’s Bay in Labrador, one of its largest mines.

The changes mark the first major overhaul since Shaun Usmar joined Vale Base Metals as chief executive officer in October. The industry veteran came into the role with a goal of improving output and reining in costs at the company’s suite of nickel and copper assets in Canada, Brazil and Indonesia.

“We cannot spend our way to prosperity,” Usmar told shareholders Tuesday at Vale’s investor event in New York. “We have to be as lean and cost-oriented as possible in order for us to realize the potential.”

Vale Base Metals had earlier informed some staff as well as one of the unions representing workers at its Canadian nickel mines of a “managerial reorganization” involving layoffs at the senior level, said Raymond Hammond, vice-president of United Steelworkers Local 6500, which represents Vale mine workers in Ontario.

(By Mariana Durao and Jacob Lorinc)

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