Anglo American has said that it will be closing its Scarborough office at Resolution House as part of a ‘consolidation’ alongside wider cost-cutting in its operations at the Woodsmith Mine and a major reduction of capital investment.
From mid-December, the company will no longer operate from Resolution House in Scarborough or from its site office at Wilton International.
It is expected that there will be a further 450 job losses between now and mid-next year, according to North Yorkshire Council.
Anglo American, which announced more than 100 job losses at the fertiliser mine this summer, said it had made the decision to consolidate its team at “one location at Woodsmith Mine on a temporary basis during the slowdown”.
It is understood that the company will retain ownership of the Resolution House site and plans to return “when the project ramps back up”.
North Yorkshire Council said that approximately 40 people are based at Resolution House and AA will be running a “free and flexible park and ride service for them to ensure the company adheres to their traffic conditions within the National Park”.
The company is developing a polyhalite fertiliser mine and a 23-mile tunnel as part of a plan to transport the product to Teesside and sell the fertiliser globally to boost crop yields.
In June, the company’s chief executive officer in the crop nutrients division, Tom McCulley, said that “budget constraints within Anglo, which are outside of the Woodsmith team’s control, necessitate that we slow down for 18 months”.
Capital investment in the Woodsmith project is set to be reduced from a planned £800m a year up to 2027 to £160m next year following the rejection of a multi-billion pound takeover bid by BHP.
The operation of the mine is understood to cost more than £2m a day.
Leader of North Yorkshire Council, Coun Carl Les, said: “Everyone who has, or will be, impacted is aware of their situation.
“In total, the number of job losses of York and North Yorkshire residents resulting from the slowdown began will be approximately 170.”
In a statement ahead of a full meeting of the authority on Wednesday, November 13, he added: “The employment support programme has now engaged almost 300 people to access training or business start-up support and many people have successfully found alternative employment.
“In addition, contractors have been successful in redeploying 200 people to work on other projects.”
