Toowoomba manufacturer Russell Mineral Equipment will cut between 50 and 100 jobs in response to weakening conditions in the mining sector.
The Chronicle reports that employees will be informed about whether they will be made redundant before the end of the year and their work will end at the end of January.
According to a company statement, the decision to cut the manufacturing jobs follows a 20 per cent reduction in demand for capital equipment in February this year and a forecast 41 per cent downturn from February 2014.
The ABC reports that Russell Mineral Equipment managing director John Russell said, "What it boils down to is that there's been so much construction and supply of metals, and we're 100 per cent metals – we do no coals – so copper, gold, platinum, nickel and things like that, the supply of metals has met, and in some cases exceeded, so people just aren't building any more mines."
However, he described the downturn as cyclical and was hopeful that the company is likely to again hire more staff in the future.
"The cycle is about 30 months long," he said.
"This one might be a bit different because there was an odd GFC [global financial crisis] even in there as well but we're expecting a low of a couple of years.”