Australian mining giant to make UK job cuts

Fortescue is an Australian iron ore mining firm

Australian mining giant Fortescue is set to make redundancies at its sites in the UK.

On Tuesday an an email sent to staff at Fortescue Zero, in Kidlington and Banbury, the company said it was "moving away from in-house manufacturing".

It said this would "regrettably... impact some roles", but did not set an exact figure on how many of its 1,000-strong workforce in the UK would lose their jobs.

The Australian news outlet reported on Tuesday that hundreds of Fortescue staff in the UK could lose their jobs under the plans.

Gus Pichot, the firm's chief executive officer for growth and energy, said in a statement that the "exact impact on staff" would be determined during a consultation process.

Fortescue purchased Williams Advanced Engineering, which had been mostly devoted to electric motor racing, in 2022 for $222m (£166m) - rebranding it as Fortescue Zero.

The company planned to use the engineering firm to build parts for fleets of new electric trucks, designed to help the antipodean iron ore mining operations reduce carbon emissions.

The company's Kidlington plant opened in October 2023

It has been reported that Fortescue - which is owned and was founded by Andrew Forrest - had so far invested about $1bn (£750m) in its Zero operations.

But at the weekend, Mr Forrest announced that battery plants and power systems needed for trucks would now be made in China, and not the Fortescue Zero factories in Oxfordshire as planned.

Mr Pichot, who in a previous life captained the Argentinian national rugby team, explained the company was "evolving, as every innovative organisation must".

He said the company would be "shifting emphasis" from in-house manufacturing to research and development, "ensuring innovation moves faster and remains unconstrained".

"Regrettably, the changes are likely to impact some of our workforce, with the majority of those potentially affected in the United Kingdom," he said.

"This is never an easy decision, and Fortescue is dedicated to guiding the transition with compassion, respect and support."

A government spokesperson said: "We recognise this will be a difficult time for affected workers and their families, and we are discussing what this decision means for Fortescue Zero's UK workers with the company.

The spokesperson added that it was "backing the automotive and advanced manufacturing sectors".

The Oxfordshire sites had previously been "key to the government's agenda on levelling up" and showed "Britain was open for business", then business secretary Kemi Badenoch told the BBC on a visit to the Banbury plant in 2023.