A worker at the Northern Territory's Bootu Creek manganese mine says production at the mine has stopped and workers have been laid off.
The mine and processing plant, north of Tennant Creek, have been operated by OM Manganese since 2006.
The company has made no public announcement on production at the site, but a worker has told ABC Rural all three production crews, made up of about 45 staff, have been laid off.
The worker, who did not want to be identified, said staff were informed last Friday about the company's intention to place the site into "care and maintenance" mode.
The worker said other operations were expected to conclude once processing of all the ore stockpiles had been finished.
It was not clear whether mining would resume in the future if the price of manganese improved.
It's believed up to 200 people are employed at the mine, the majority of those on a fly-in-fly-out roster.
ABC Rural has attempted to contact OM Manganese management at Bootu Creek, Perth and Singapore several times, but no response has been received.
Other workers have posted comments on social media site Facebook in the past week, about changes to their employment.
One person writes "well it looks like it's all over at Bootu."
In response, another writes "everyone just use the time for a bit of a break."
Another person posted a photo of the Air North logo 'together we fly', with the words "just not into Bootu."
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/