Global miner Glencore has taken a swipe at Australia's mining giants, saying their mass iron ore and coal expansions had "cannibalised" revenue and hurt the economy.
Glencore itself had been the first to take the responsible path of stopping its own coal expansions, which was good for the Australian mining industry, coal chief Peter Freyberg told a Melbourne Mining Club lunch.
His comments came a day after US coal giant Peabody Energy said it would axe up to 210 jobs and cut production by nearly half at a north Queensland mine as it struggled with falling prices.
Glencore announced it would cut 80 jobs and production from its north Queensland Collinsville coal mine last week.
Mr Freyberg said Glencore was exercising market discipline, cutting mining output, combining some of its NSW coal operations with Peabody's and putting its $7 billion Queensland Wandoan coal mine project on hold.
"After a period of much new production increases right across the industry in the boom times, Glencore was the first to say: it's time to stop building," he said.
The failures of the big miners' iron ore expansions was clear because "the numbers speak for themselves", Mr Freyberg said.
"If you go back a couple of years 500 million tonnes were being exported at $US100 a tonne to (currently) over 700 million tonnes in exports at $US60," he said.
"A whole lot of revenue has gone missing in the equation following a bunch of investment ... the returns into Australian superannuation funds, through royalties through taxes has been a negative exercise."
"We love to pump the stuff out, we love to build new assets but if you look at the whole business today: there's a right level to run it at in the interests of our own business and our own shareholders."
However pumping out extra shipments of coal when prices were falling would "cannibalise" Glencore's own revenue, he said.
Falls in coal and iron ore prices contributed $1.6 billion to a $2.7 billion rise in Australia's trade deficit in April to a record $3.9 billion, and is wiping billions from government revenue.
Mr Freyberg's comments come in the context of his boss chief executive Ivan Glasenberg's rejected takeover offer for mining giant Rio Tinto last year and his outspoken criticism of it and BHP for oversupplying the market.
Mr Freyberg added to speculation about another move on Rio in Wednesday's speech, saying the current low commodity prices made it a good time to buy.
He said the long and medium term outlooks for coal were positive, for producing energy and steel, with carbon capture and storage an effective way of cutting polluting emissions.
"Building coal fired power is still the cheapest way of powering people out of poverty," he said.
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