Platinum mine sheds its entire workforce
NUM says dozens of families will be plunged into poverty by decision to place operations under care and maintenance.
A platinum mine in Limpopo. Photo: Capricorn Review
As the jobs bloodbath in the mining sector intensifies, another mining company, Bokoni Platinum, is to retrench its entire workforce of more than 2 600 employees and place the company under a two-year “care and maintenance” programme.
The announcement has shocked the Limpopo provincial government, which described it as a “serious challenge” for the people of the province.
“We can’t afford to lose so many jobs in our poor province in one go, it will be a sad story,” provincial government spokesperson Phuti Seloba said yesterday.
Company spokesperson Joel Kesler said the Limpopo-based mine, owned jointly by Atlatsa Resources (51%) and Anglo American Platinum (49%), had no option but to lay off the 2 651 employees due to enormous losses.
However, Kesler was quick to stress that the mine was not closing down, but would take a two-year operating break to enable it to position itself for recovery.
“We are not shutting down. The mine would be placed under care and maintenance, which meant it would keep its infrastructure in place, ensure that machines are safe and under maintenance so that when things change for the better, we can continue where we left off,” Kesler said.
The Bokoni Mine decision comes nearly a month after AngloGold Ashanti announced its plan to retrench 8 500 workers.
AngloGold said retrenchments were necessitated by the need to improve the cost base and production at its operations.
The National Union of Mineworkers yesterday said it was worried about the pending Bokoni retrenchments and that it had already received a section 189 notice from the mining company regarding the retrenchments.
Kesler told The Citizen yesterday that in the last six months Bokoni Platinum had recorded a R500 million operating loss.
“It hasn’t been productive, the cost of mining has been very high,” he said.
The firm looked at various options to try to save the situation, including the reconfiguration of the mine, but it continued to be a negative cost and loss-making operation.
The situation was also impacted by the current volatile state of platinum mining.
