Aussie coal mines likely to get mess amid Anglo American's global restructure plans

Numerous Australian coal mines have been caught up as part of resources giant Anglo American's global restructure plans with communities bracing for significant job losses and economic impact.

Anglo American announced its global restructure overnight, merging its six businesses into three with plans to cut its workforce by two-thirds, or 85,000 employees within the next two years.

Among the measures flagged include asset sales to write off billions in debt against loss0making mines amid the downturn in commodities, particularly coal.

Anglo's three Queensland mines and its mothballed New South Wales mine, which are currently in care and maintenance mode, are still for sale, however the mining giant's Capcoal operations in central Queensland, Moranbah North in northern Queensland and Drayton in NSW could also be affected.

Xinhua has contacted Anglo American for clarification.

The company has told local media it's manganese operations the Groote Eylandt Mining Company off the coast of the Northern Territory and the Tasmanian Electro Metallurgical Company in Tasmania were not for sale.

Following the massive restructure, Anglo expects it's workforce to be approximately 50,000, down from the 135,000 it currently has, via the combination of asset-sales and internal cuts.

"Bare in mind that these include assets that we will sell, so the 85,000 jobs don't (all) disappear as many will be employed by new owners of those mines that we sell," a spokesperson confirmed in an email to AFP.

However local analysts have said buyers for Anglo's Australian mines would be hard to find because with the downturn in commodities as other major miners are also looking to diversify out of assets.

Swiss-based Glencore announced on Tuesday it was putting its Collinsville colliery into idle mode for three weeks towards the end of the month and restrict production next year as prices for thermal coal - used in power stations - continue to deteriorate.

Glencore has effectively closed the mine after it noted production would only come from in-pit inventory and current stockpiles with little cost and effort unless prices improve.

"We will reassess the situation during the year," the company said in a statement, though analysts from Citi predict that won't happen until after 2020.

Fallout from the significant downturn in commodities is likely to get messy after Rio Tinto announced it was making further cuts to its capital investment for 2016, slashing another 1.5 billion U.S. dollars over two years.

The announcement followed a 2.5 billion U.S. dollar cut over two years in August, leaving the global giant's annual capex spend at 5 billion U.S. dollars over 2015 and 2016.

At 13:32 local time, Rio Tinto had lost 60 Australian cents, or 1.42 percent to 41.80 Australian dollars.

Spotlight has also been shone on diversified miner BHP Billiton after Anglo announced changes to its progressive dividend policy, scrapping payouts until 2018.

BHP maintained its progressive dividend policy at its annual general meeting in Perth just over two weeks ago, however chairman Jac Nasser stressed the mining giant's balance sheet would take precedence.

"[It's] enough to make me believe that the likely write-downs coming at the half-year numbers in February to the mass decline in commodities will lead to a policy change," IG market strategist Evan Lucas said.

BHP's Australian listed shares have a dividend yield of 9.8 percent, while the London listed stocks are over 12 percent on current policy.

"The 2016 commodity thematics make BHP's progressive dividend policy hard to swallow and the Anglo-American moves overnight just adds pressure to scrap what is an out-step program," Lucas said. Endit