It’s another blow for the region’s fabrication industry, which is already reeling from the Upper Hunter coal industry downturn.

The Abel mine on John Renshaw Drive will shed 170 workers and Austar at Paxton has lost 55.

“Those two mines have represented 20 per cent of our work,” Kurri Kurri Solid Engineering managing director Trevor Reynolds said. “It will take a bit of wind out of our sails.”

Tynan Engineering at Rutherford said the redundancies would have a flow-on effect in Maitland even if the mine service sector didn’t feel the impact ­immediately.

“If coal miners lose their jobs they stop buying houses and other things like televisions,” operations manager Glenn Tynan said. 

Despite the challenges, there is ­optimism.

Solid Engineering has weathered the worst in economic conditions since it opened two years ago at the height of the coal industry downturn.

Mr Reynolds’ crew of 14 men on the workshop floor manufactures mine equipment including ventilation gear.

“We have been quoting jobs as far away as Queensland,” Mr Reynolds said.

“We’ll keep going. They’re not going to stop us, we just have to put our wings out further.”

Abel employs 278 people and will retain just 108 workers.

Applications for voluntary redundancies at Abel have closed.

The mine’s management will determine who goes under any compulsory redundancies from Friday, August 7.