Mining near Tumbler Ridge has been put on hold. — Photo courtesy InvestNorthwest. Teck Resources to cut 600 jobs, defers Quintette coal restart but i

Mining near Tumbler Ridge has been put on hold. — Photo courtesy InvestNorthwest.

Teck Resources to cut 600 jobs, defers Quintette coal restart but is restarting Pend Oreille zinc mine.

Teck Resources (TCK +0.8%) rises despite a 68% Y/Y drop in Q1 adjusted earnings, hurt by weak commodity prices, particularly for coal.

TCK says it will lay off ~600 people, ~5% of its workforce, part of a broader cost reduction program it has implemented; TCK says it has achieved $345M in annual cost cuts to date, and is now targeting another $200M in cuts plus a $150M reduction in capital spending.

As expected, TCK will defer the restart of its Quintette coal project in British Columbia, as higher met coal prices are needed for the project to make sense, but it will move ahead with a restart of the Pend Oreille zinc mine in Washington state as the outlook for zinc has increased.