Canada’s Teck Cominco Laying Off Aboot 1,400

Vancouver’s Teck Cominco, a Canadian mining firm with a poor environmental record, is reducing coal production and cutting its workforce by 1,400 positions.

The 1,000 employee and 400 contractor positions represent about 13% of Teck Cominco’s global workforce. The cuts will generate annual savings of $85 million Canadian.

Teck is also cutting staff and contractors associated with exploration activities and research & development. The cuts will eliminate redundancies at the corporate level created by Teck’s recent acquisition of Fording Canadian Coal Trust.

Most of the cuts will be completed in Q1 2009.

Teck also plans to reduce coal output to 20 million metric tons this year due to declining steel demand.