Cape Town - Trans Hex Group said on Monday that 125 employees, or 22 percent of the workforce, had accepted voluntary retrenchment packages as part of restructuring at its ageing Lower Orange River Operations (LOR).
The company said the majority of the volunteers were older employees with long service.
Trans Hex said an agreement had been concluded with the National Union of Mineworkers to change the production shift system at the Baken and Bloeddrif mines from the end of this month.
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In line with the company's strategy of responsibly managing the assets in the final years of their economic life cycles by optimising mining and treatment volumes, the LOR operations would be reduced from a four-shift system seven days a week, to a three-shift system five and a half days a week.
AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY