US coal giant Peabody Energy will axe up to 210 jobs and cut production at a north Queensland mine as it struggles with falling prices.
Peabody announced it was reducing metallurgical coal production by about 1.5 million tonnes a year from its North Goonyella mine, west of Mackay.
A spokesman said between 35 and 40 per cent of the 525 jobs held by employees and contractors at the mine would go.
Coking coal prices are down 23 per cent this year to $US86 a tonne.
The spokesman said while there had been positive signs of a recovery in spot prices recently, prices had been falling for four years.
Australian-based coal miners have been cutting costs including many jobs for some time with the global market oversupplied.
In a statement on Thursday, Peabody said the plans to reduce production at North Goonyella was designed to cut costs and improve cash flow and productivity.
"Over the next month, the mine is expected to transition to one production shift per day," the company said.
"Peabody expects production at the mine to decline to approximately 2.3 million tons this year from originally projected 2015 production levels of 3.0 million tons."
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