(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)

KAMLOOPS - The company many are looking to to provide new jobs to Kamloops has cut seven positions from its Kamloops office.

Clyde Gillespie of KGHM Ajax Mining Inc. says the decision to eliminate over a third of the Kamloops office came from KGHM International because a slow copper market has affected cash flow.

“It was a pretty heavy cut,” he says. “We’ve had to let go some talented people.”

The positions mostly related to human resources and finances and will slow down the company’s environmental assessment permit application for the proposed Ajax Mine. Gillespie would not confirm who exactly was laid off, but implied at least one communications position was among those cut, with senior communications strategist Robert Koopmans no longer the contact person for media.

“With reduced resources we’ll probably be moving a little slower in the process,” he says. “Work will continue here on the permitting process just as it always has. As a company KGHM is still committed to the Ajax project.”

The duties of the cut positions will be covered by the KGHM International office in Vancouver.

Supporters of the project often tout the hundreds to thousands of jobs the company is expected to bring to the city if the mine is approved.

The proposed copper and gold mine will border the southwest edge of Kamloops if approved. It is currently in the environmental assessment phase, though the process has been temporarily suspended to allow the mining company to collect information and answer questions from the provincial and federal environmental assessment offices.

Gillespie has previously said tight human resources led the company to request the suspension of it’s environmental assessment.

— This story was updated at 2:29 p.m., May 26, 2016, to clarify the positions affected by the lay offs.

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