Rio Tinto, parent company of Kennecott Utah Copper, one of the largest copper producers in the nation, is eliminating a total of 241 workers and contractors from its Utah operations.

Friday's layoffs are part of the company's plan to cut 14,000 jobs globally to conserve cash flow and reduce its debt in response to the deepening global economic downturn. The company's goals are to eliminate nearly $40 billion in debt and reduce operating costs by $2.5 billion a year by 2010.

Rio Tinto, which has about 2,400 employees in Utah, has already started laying off its contractors and will start cutting its employees next week. The affected employees will be offered severance packages and outplacement assistance.

The Utah layoffs are part of a series of measures announced in December to cope with what the company called "the unprecedented rapidity and severity of the global economic downturn, which has caused sharp falls in commodity prices and a significantly weaker outlook."

"We know these decisions have personal consequences to those involved and those who remain," said Andrew Harding, president and CEO, Kennecott Utah Copper. "Rio Tinto must respond, like so many other companies, to this global economic crisis which may continue to deteriorate."

Rio Tinto purchased Kennecott Utah Copper in 1989 and has invested about $2 billion in the modernization of Kennecott's operations. Kennecott Utah Copper produces about 13 percent of the nation's copper needs, or 18.1 million tons of copper ore.

Kennecott Land, established by Rio Tinto in April 2001 to develop surplus mining land on Salt Lake Valley's West Bench, owns Daybreak, a 20,000 home residential community in South Jordan.