In the story ‘Operations to be suspended at Endako Mine' published in the Lakes District News' Dec. 17, 2014, edition, hundreds of employees of Endako Molybdenum Mine in Fraser Lake discovered they would be out of a job starting January 2015.
Thompson Creek Metals Company Inc. announced Dec. 10, 2014, that the company and its joint venture partner Sojitz Moly Resources had agreed to place Endako Mine on temporary suspension effective Dec. 31, 2014. The reason was a continued weakness in the molybdenum market.
The molybdenum price is as low as it has been since 2003, currently just under $6 per pound. The market is suffering principally from a slowdown in demand especially as it relates to steel in the oil and gas industry, explained Pamela Solly, Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Responsibility for Thompson Creek.
“In order to realize significant price improvement which will be necessary for us to consider re-starting the mine, we will need to see a strong improvement in molybdenum demand most especially from the steel sector,” said Solly. “We do not expect that this is likely for several more years to come.”
Before the company was placed into temporary suspension, Endako Mine had a total of 347 employees - 263 hourly and 84 salaried. Currently, the mine has a total of 22 employees - nine hourly and 13 salaried.
Soon after the company was placed into temporary suspension, Endako Mine’s human resources team coordinated and executed a “support program” for workers who had lost their jobs.
The human resources team worked with site management and government resources to provide workers with “as much assistance as possible within a short period of time,” said Solly.
The human resources team met with Fraser Lake council to address their concerns, and later arranged a town hall meeting in Fraser Lake to answer questions from the community.
The company set up the so-called “Endako employee support centre” in Fraser Lake and arranged for WorkBC to also set up a satellite office to assist workers.
On Jan. 16-17, 2015, the company held a job fair at the Fraser Lake Ice Arena. The job fair included 29 companies and government agencies such as Service Canada, WorkBC and Northern Skills Training.
In addition, Endako Mine worked with the College of New Caledonia to arrange continued tuition funding for 16 trades apprentices.
Fraser Lake Mayor Dwayne Lindstrom said Endako Mine has done a “great job” trying to relocate employees to other companies.
“They [Endako Mine] have organized job fairs, given severance packages and they’ve done as much as they could,” said Lindstrom.
Fraser Lake does not have any statistics on how many Endako Mine workers were able to find other jobs. However, Lindstrom said many workers were hired by companies in Burns Lake, Vanderhoof and Prince George.
“The industry has been good around the area to try to pick up these people,” he said. “It’s not a good situation, but at least people are trying.”