BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP) announced on Wednesday that it would close its Norwich Park coking coal mine in Queensland due to flooding, strikes, higher costs and falling prices that caused production cut to all the firm's mines.

The move is expected to cause job losses for 1,500 permanent workers and contractors, but BHP said it was studying the possibility of redeploying some of them.

BMA, the alliance between BHP and Mitsubishi which operates the mine, said the indefinite closure of the mine came after it conducted a seven-week review of operations and failed to find less costly ways to run it. The announcement came a day before the start of a new round of three-day industrial action across seven BMA mines.

"While recent industrial action has had an impact on production, the mine has been unprofitable for some months.... As a result, we have had to take urgent steps to both stop the losses and find the best way to secure the operation's longer term future. Importantly, this decision on Norwich Park Mine is not reflective of the broader quality of our world class Queensland Coal operation," BMA Asset President Stephen Dumble said in a statement.

Mr Dumble said BMA will keep the mine closed until it finds viable alternatives to operation Norwich as a sustainably profitable, low-cost mine.

Despite the indefinite closure of the mine and a declaration of a force majeure, BMA will conduct a postal ballot directly with Bowen Basic miners on a proposed new agreement which bypassed the Confederation of Forestry, Mining and Engineering Union (CFMEU). The ballot begins Friday and will end April 30.

Due to the BMA plan, CFMEU asked Fair Work Australia to stop BMA from holding the postal ballot. The union said it is opposed to the postal ballots because many miners have no copy yet of the proposed enterprise agreement and may not have enough time until the April 30 deadline to make an informed decision.

CFMEU General Secretary Andrew Vickers pointed to the poor track record of participation for postal ballots and very slow and unreliable postal service in central Queensland as the reasons behind their move. He added workers are more use to casting their ballots at job sites.

On the same day that BMA announced the Norwich Park mine closure, BHP disclosed that it entered into a joint venture with Chevron to develop a petroleum project in the Gulf of Mexico. BHP committed $708 million for the purchase equipment in the Mad Dog Phase 2 project.

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