Coal towns brace for raft of job losses

Coal mining communities in Queensland and NSW are bracing for a raft of job losses as miner Anglo American begins a "radical" global restructuring program.

The mining giant is cutting 85,000 jobs worldwide but says some of the jobs will be transferred via asset sales as it writes off billions of dollars owing to the closure of loss-making mines as commodity prices crash.

UK-listed Anglo said its Dawson, Foxleigh and Callide coal mines in Queensland and its mothballed Dartbrook coal mine in NSW were still on the market.

"The four assets for sale are included in the overall reduction as outlined by chief executive Mark Cutifani with no additional mines earmarked for sale, closure or care and maintenance in Australia," an Anglo American spokeswoman said.

The company, which has 3500 direct employees and around 1300 contractors in Australia, plans to outline the detail of the future portfolio in February as it continues to face challenging operating conditions.

Mr Cutifani said in a statement that the company was setting out an "accelerated and more aggressive strategic restructuring" of the portfolio to focus on high value long-term assets that were best placed to deliver free cash flow.

Anglo American published a graph showing the expected decline in global jobs - to 99,000 next year and 92,000 in 2017 followed by another sharp reduction - via a combination of asset sales and internal cuts.

The company said the figures include assets the company would sell and many workers would be employed by new owners of those mines.

The net result is expected to be a reduction to around 50,000 employees.

It comes as many Queensland and NSW coal miners cut back production as prices remain weak.

Anglo American also runs the Capcoal operations in central Queensland, Moranbah North in northern Queensland and Drayton in NSW.

It holds a 40 per cent stake in GEMCO, a manganese mining operation at Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory.