Sydney  - Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP Billiton Ltd said Wednesday that it would slash 6,300 jobs by June, with one third of them going in Australia.

The world's largest resources company will mothball its Ravensthorpe nickel mine in Western Australia. Over on the east coast of the continent, in New South Wales and Queensland, 1,100 coal mining jobs will go.

The news of layoffs at BHP came after mining rival Rio Tinto Alcan Ltd announced it would shed 1,100 positions worldwide because of the slumping aluminium price. Last year, Rio Tinto cut 14,000 jobs to bring production capacity more into line with flagging demand for commodities.

BHP chief financial officer Alex Vanselow said the company was in a competitive position to ride out the difficult economic conditions.

"We believe in the long-term story of urbanization, through China, through India, but we always believe that, as an underlying force and on top of that, you would have your normal business cycles," he said. "So we have been disciplined when things were good, and we'll continue to be disciplined in this time of uncertainty."

The announcement was one factor in taking 3.1 per cent off the value of BHP shares. Rio was also down, its stocks trading 5 per cent below Tuesday's close.

There was further bad news on the job front, with Australian Discount Retail announcing that 402 shops would close and 2,700 workers be made redundant. The retailer went into receivership owing creditors 96 million Australian dollars (59 million US dollars). (dpa)