00:00In the heart of Kwinana sits a rare opportunity, employment at a nickel refinery less than
00:0850 kilometres from Perth.
00:11But that will soon change.
00:13From October, BHP will suspend operations at refineries in Kwinana and Kalgoorlie and
00:19its mines at Mount Keith and Leinster.
00:22Well, this is nearly 60 years old, so it's not unexpected, but it doesn't make the
00:27outcome for BHP or the workers any easy to swallow.
00:33The move comes amid a drop in nickel prices as Indonesia dominates the global market.
00:38But with projects in critical minerals and manufacturing set to skyrocket in Kwinana,
00:43hope for local workers may not be lost.
00:46I think there will be considerable opportunities for local workers to find employment elsewhere
00:51along the Kwinana industrial area.
00:53Some of the workers have been at this refinery for decades, and while BHP has offered frontline
00:59employees alternative work within the company, for many that would mean drastic and impractical
01:05changes in lifestyle.
01:07That person may now be offered an opportunity to work in another part of the BHP operations,
01:13which means they'll have to shift to a FIFO model of work.
01:16That may not suit them.
01:17I get that.
01:18An option the workers' union says isn't for everyone.
01:21They probably don't want to be one of those statistics, you know, which is a high statistic
01:26about marriages and families that fall apart because of fly-in, fly-out.
01:30That might be why they're working in Kwinana.
01:32BHP says it will review the suspension in 2027.
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