Teck Resources to slash 1000 more jobs, cut spending

Vancouver-based miner Teck Resources Ltd is tightening its purse strings and letting go of about nine per cent of its workforce in response to persistently low commodity prices.

The diversified miner said it plans to cut 1,000 jobs, bringing the total redundancies over the past 18 months to about 2,000.

Teck, which employs about 11,000 people, will eliminate jobs across its global offices, including senior management positions, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

The company said it would achieve a reduction of $650 million in total spending in 2016 through $350 million in capital spending cuts and $300 million in operating cost savings.

"We are implementing these additional measures to conserve capital, lower our operating costs and maintain financial flexibility in light of very difficult market conditions," Chief Executive Don Lindsay said.

Teck Resources also plans to withdraw its Coal Mountain project from the Environmental Assessment process and suspend further work on it in the fourth quarter of 2017.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded Teck's credit rating to junk in September, blaming weak commodity prices and heavy capital spending by the coal and base metals miner.

The company, the largest producer of steel-making coal in North America, said in May that it has begun rotating shutdowns at six Canadian coal mines and that it may take further actions in the fourth quarter if the supply-demand balance does not improve.