Coal miners in resource-rich nation Australia, in the midst of a mining slowdown, have slashed down 900 jobs just this week alone.

Global miner BHP Billiton announced it will be shutting down the Gregory Crinum open-pit coal mine near Emerald, Queensland, where 300 jobs will be affected. Coal mining firm Xstrata Plc, meanwhile, will likewise reduce off 600 jobs, including office-based positions in Sydney.

The decision to close the 33-year-old Gregory open-cut mine, according to BHP Billiton, ensued after an operational review on its operations.

"The decision follows a continuing operational review of the Gregory Crinum operations, which determined that the Gregory open-cut mine production was no longer profitable in the current economic environment of falling prices, high costs and a strong Australian dollar," the company said in a statement, noting the affected workers, 55 direct employees and 242 contractors, will be assisted for possible redeployment to its other nines run under a BHP Billiton-Mitsubishi alliance.

Production will stop on October 10, when the mine will be put on a care and maintenance program. Although it could re-open, this would still be dependent if prices of coking and thermal coal improve. High maintenance and administrative costs coupled with a strong Australian dollar have also largely affected BHP Billiton's to close the mine.

Meanwhile, Xstrata, Australia's top thermal coal exporter, remained confident the impending job cuts will not disturb its production volumes nor negatively influence its approved projects.

The company's programmed slash of 600 jobs includes permanent staff and contractors.

The job reductions, a trend now becoming of the Australian mining industry, could just actually be beginning.

"We would be expecting similar announcements coming out of some of the other majors in terms of their coal operations," analyst David Lennox told BusinessDay. "We can't see the cycle for either thermal or coking coal really pushing on the price to see them go up."