Slumping copper prices has led Teck’s Highland Valley Copper mine to announce it will cut its workforce by six per cent by the end of 2016.

Peter Martell, superintendent of environment and community affairs at the mine told the Herald that nine management staff were laid off today, and more job cuts will be coming in the new year.

“We’ve had challenging market conditions that are continuing, so they are taking steps to reduce costs at Highland Valley Copper and maintain our competitiveness,” Martell said.

President of the United Steelworkers Local 7619, Kyle Wolff, said the challenge is that production costs have gone up as copper prices have gone down.

“We have an increased copper production price through wage increases and fuel costs, and everything else that happens over the years,” he said. “We have a higher employee base than we’ve had before.”

The mine, located near Logan Lake, employs approximately 1,400 people, meaning some 80 jobs are being eliminated from that six per cent, something Teck hopes to do primarily through attrition — eliminating a position when the person in it retires.

“There’s always a significant number of people each year that retire,” Martell said.

Unionized employees have not been affected yet.

Wolff said that the language in their contract stipulates that non-union contractors are to be targeted for layoffs before unionized workers.

Wolff also noted that Teck’s job cuts at the mine are not all coming at once.

“It’s a long-term plan to reduce costs overall,” he said.

Martell said copper prices have been decreasing gradually, and there’s no rebound in sight at this point.