Representatives from more than 60 regional and national companies manned the booths at a job fair platinum and palladium producer Sibanye-Stillwater held in Columbus for the 700-or-so employees it’s letting go of next month.
Tony Koss is with JENNMAR Services, which helps find employees for the mines that need them.
“It’s really amazing the kind of experience here, and we’re trying to take advantage of that,” said Koss.
Koss said their available mining jobs are primarily in the east coast and in Colorado and Utah, but employees can potentially work on site for one week and go home the next.
“I’d say maybe a third of the ones I’ve talked to are willing to relocate and to take jobs in Utah and places where they’d have to move to,” he said.
Sibanye-Stillwater operates two platinum and palladium mines and a processing plant in Stillwater and Sweet grass counties. The company announced mass layoffs on September 12, saying the Montana operations had not been profitable since 2022.
Other mining companies at the job fair say they are hiring, but only out of state.
Job seeker and Sibanye-Stillwater mechanic Levi Faul said he’d be up for splitting his time as long as he can live in Montana.
“I’m interested in staying,” Faul said. “Mostly because I just bought a house. I’m only a year in so I can’t really leave the house without getting capital gains, things like that, so staying in Billings would be my ideal placement. Outside of that, if I gotta travel, I’d just stay here and work away from home.”
Layoffs are set to begin November 12.
