Johannesburg - The mining industry continues to bleed jobs after the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Friday that it had received section 189 notices from Pan African Resources which intends to lay off about 2000 workers at its troubled Evander Gold Mine.
The Evander mine’s shafts 8 and 7 were closed earlier this month after an accident left one worker dead.
NUM said the company had said the planned retrenchments were due to ageing infrastructure, high operating costs and a low gold price.
NUM national spokesperson Livhuwani Mammburu said the company had opted to take the easier route of retrenching workers and the union would oppose the planned retrenchments.
“We are totally opposed to these retrenchments at Evander Gold Mine. The retrenchment of 2000 permanent workers is bad, given the fact that the majority of mineworkers support 10 people per family,” Mammburu said. He further added that since 2012, more than 30000 jobs have been lost in the platinum sectors, and more than 10000 in the gold sector.
AngloGold Ashanti earlier this year said it had plans to shed more than 800 jobs across the country due to operational requirements.
Pan African, which mines gold and coal, last week declared a dividend of R300 million, its largest yet after the company reported a 10percent increase in profit for the six months ended December.
Read also: Job cuts mooted at Evander
However, the company had cautioned that it expected a tough second half of the year due to R40 million refurbishment of two closed shafts at its Evander mine that will entail the underground workings to be shut for up to two months.
The company said the temporary closure of the Evander mine two shafts would see it producing 14000 ounces less of gold during the year and drag the company’s annual output down to 181000oz. It bought the Evander mine from Harmony in 2012 for R1.5 billion.
In its Mine SA 2016 Facts and Figures pocket book, the Chamber of Mines, said 457698 individuals were directly employed by the sector in 2015 who support between 5 and 10 dependents.
The chamber said the there was an urgent need for modernisation in the industry.