Johannesburg - Four mining companies in South Africa, including Assmang Ltd and Rockwell Diamonds, plan to cut 1 031 jobs between them at operations in the Northern Cape province, the National Union of Mineworkers said.
The companies have served notice of the workforce reduction under the Labour Relations Act, which makes provision for 60 days of talks over the cuts, the union said in an emailed statement on Thursday.
“We were told of this over the past three days,” Lucas Phiri, regional co-ordinator for the union, said by phone. Employers cited commodity prices and profitability in making the cuts, he said.
Mine operators worldwide are trimming costs and spending as a rout in commodity prices crimps profit. Prices of minerals and metals dropped to the lowest since August 2002 on January 29, according to the Bloomberg Commodity Index. The mining industry in South Africa, where almost one in every four adults is unemployed, lost 14 000 jobs in the fourth quarter of 2014, the statistics agency said last month.
Assmang, a manganese-producing joint venture between African Rainbow Minerals Ltd and Assore Ltd, has given notice of plans to cut 375 positions at its Black Rock iron-ore mine. Rockwell is seeking to reduce staff numbers by 287, the union said. Closely held Diro Manganese (Pty) Ltd. may reduce its staff by 50 workers while Blue Chip, a mining contractor, wants to cut 319 positions.
At Assmang’s Black Rock mine, management will consider the re-deployment of workers and other measures to reduce job cuts, African Rainbow said in an emailed response to questions.
“It is not possible to say how many people will be affected,” it said.
Diro Manganese and Blue Chip didn’t respond to calls seeking comment. Rockwell Diamonds Chief Executive Officer James Campbell didn’t immediately answer calls seeking comment.
Bloomberg