Implats plans to shutter more mines, lay off 13,000 workers

The world’s second-largest platinum miner, Impala Platinum (Implats), is planning to cut its future production to 520,000 ounces of platinum and slash the number of its mines to six from 11.

Business Day reports it will also shed 13,000 jobs within two years.

The platinum sector has been struggling with high costs and lower and stagnant values being paid for the precious metal.

The platinum giant has already cut about 2,500 jobs this year.

The company employs about 30,000 people at its Rustenburg operations. It said earlier this month only three of its shafts were making decent profits.

Since March, things took a turn for the worse and the platinum price hit a nine-year low in July.