Mining giant BHP Billiton has announced as many as 900 jobs will be cut from its iron ore business in a bid to shield the company from lowering demand and dropping prices of iron ore.

 

While the company has refused to confirm how many jobs will be cut, it has announced the number of cuts will depend on how many of its workers can be redeployed to other roles.

 

"There are currently approximately 900 open roles available across the iron ore business but until the redeployment process has been completed, it is too early to say how many people will be made redundant," the company announced in a statement.

 

"Against a backdrop of increasing costs and falling commodity prices, we continue to focus on reducing our overheads and operating costs.”

 

The company has been at pains to stress that most employees will see little change to the organisation.

 

The announcement follows the company’s decision to shelve it’s planned $30 billion Olympic Dam expansion and the closure of one of it’s Gregory coal later this week.