Fifty-one workers at the Oceana Gold Globe Progress Mine were laid off this morning.
The job losses, which have been signalled for more than a month, come as the company heads towards putting the Reefton mine into 'care and maintenance' next year.
One employee said the workers were called to a meeting at the Tai Poutini Polytechnic Reefton campus this morning, when they were handed a letter and immediately stopped work.
Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union West Coast organiser Garth Elliott confirmed the job losses.
He also said more redundancies were to come.
