Terry Haney and his wife Shanda just completed construction of what they thought would be home for the rest of their lives and were settling into life in southwest Billings, Montana, when word came in September that Terry’s job with Sibanye-Stillwater Mining would be cut as part of a historic downsizing.
Friday was their last day in Billings before moving on to his new job at a gold mine in South Carolina.
Haney spent nearly six years mining palladium with Sibanye-Stillwater, but instead of continuing the job he loved in a place he loved living, he was instead saying goodbye to a good-paying job.
What gets emotional for him is thinking about “that brotherhood bond that guys build,” said Haney, who grew up in Fromberg, Montana, and hoped to spend his career at Sibanye-Stillwater. “You get two guys underground when it’s quiet, you talk about stuff you don’t even talk to your spouse about.
“When I got hired on, all they preached was, ‘We have resources for 70 years. Your grandkids will be able to work here.’”
The Stillwater mine is outside Columbus, 42 miles to the southwest in the shadow of Granite Peak, Montana’s tallest mountain.
Haney, a father of two, and other downsized mine staff were processed recently in groups of 20 in Columbus, with 40 state employees from the Montana Department of Labor and Industry on hand to offer “rapid response” assistance with job training and transition options.
Haney said he appreciated the support, but came away disappointed with the experience of being part of a mass layoff.
“Normally, when a company lays you off, they give you a one-on-one (meeting),” said Haney. “This was more, ‘Wham, bam, thank you ma’am.’”
Historic Job Cuts
On Sept. 11, Sibanye-Stillwater Mining sent the Montana Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) a “warn notice” announcing big cuts to the mine’s labor force.
It’s the type of notice that has meant the loss of hundreds of mining jobs across Montana and Wyoming over the past decade.
With this notice, “We lost 27% of all mining jobs in the state of Montana,” said Sam Loveridge, spokesperson for DLI.
“We thought it was very important to be there,” said Loveridge of the four-day rapid-response work in Columbus. “It was the largest rapid response in the history of Montana. It’s the largest layoff in state history. It worked out to be more than 500 (people). The Butte mine layoff back in the ’80s was probably bigger than Stillwater, but that was before we tracked those numbers.”
Sibanye-Stillwater Mining is the largest employer in Stillwater County, and to help transition displaced workers, DLI is counting on a $14 million dislocated worker grant from the U.S. Department of Labor.
“These employees are used to making $2,100 to $2,500 a week, six-figure salaries,” said Loveridge. “Our goal is to find them jobs that have commensurate pay, and using the skills they used at the mine, or whatever skills we can help them learn.”
South Carolina-Bound
Haney said some of his coworkers from the Stillwater mine are training to become electrical linemen in Billings. Another is joining Haney in South Carolina, where they will transition from extracting the rare metal palladium in Montana to mining gold in the East.
The OceanaGold Haile Gold mine in Kershaw, South Carolina, is a smaller operation, said Haney, but it comes with good pay. It’s also more than 2,000 miles from where Haney and his family have called home.
“There’s not many jobs that can offer you that pay scale right away,” said Haney, looking on the bright side of things during his last day in Montana before moving south. “It’s good pay, especially with the cost of living down there is significantly cheaper.”
A four-bedroom, three-bath, 3,000-square-foot home in that part of South Carolina goes for less than $500,000, about half of what it costs to buy a similar property in Montana, said Haney. This trip will be his first time setting foot in South Carolina, where his family will rent for the first six months.
With winter weather in the forecast in Montana, Haney said the packing process wasn’t all bad, adding, “I was happy to sell my snow blower.”
By The Numbers
In a Sept. 12 letter to employees, Sibanye-Stillwater Executive Vice President Kevin Robertson offered some discouraging news “with a heavy heart.”
“Two years ago, palladium was trading at $2,305 per ounce. In late summer 2023, it was down to $1,280 per ounce. In the last three months, palladium has traded consistently below $1,000 per ounce,” reported Robertson, adding an international twist. “We believe Russian dumping is a cause of this sharp price dislocation.
“Russia produces over 40% of the global palladium supply, and rising imports of palladium have inundated the U.S. market over the last several years.”
Losing money for two years was the final straw, Robertson said.
“We have not had profitable operations since the third quarter of 2022,” he said. “In 2023, our Montana operations lost over $265 million. We have lost an additional $87 million in the first half of 2024, for a total of over $350 million in losses since the beginning of 2023.”
The automobile industry is the largest consumer of palladium, using up to 85% of global production for components like catalytic converters.
“We also believe the palladium market will recover with the right adjustments,” added Robertson, describing the up and down international marketplace for mined materials that’s led to layoffs in Wyoming’s coal industry and raises questions about future opportunities for miners in the West.
Sibanye-Stillwater is based in Weltevreden Park, South Africa, and reportedly has recently announced a 9% year-on-year increase in adjusted earnings, according to Mining Weekly.
Those gains were not enough to save hundreds of jobs in Montana, but some help is on the way. In addition to the federal dislocated worker grant, former Sibanye-Stillwater workers can transition to new jobs through the state of Montana’s apprenticeship program.
According to a Nov. 22 DLI report, 3,150 Montanans were enrolled in active apprenticeships at the end of September, an increase of 25% over the last five years. The number breaks the previous record set in 2022.
In 2024, 770 apprenticeships began in the first nine months of the year and more than 680 Montana businesses offered apprenticeships to train workers, another record high.
But for many like Haney, continuing their careers in mining or using their skills means leaving the state for jobs elsewhere.
Contact David Madison at david@cowboystatedaily.com
