https://www.engineeringnews.co.za

Glencore mulls closure of some South African coal operations

Ivan Glasenberg

Ivan Glasenberg

Photo by Duane Daws

28th January 2015

By: Martin Creamer

Creamer Media Editor

  

Font size: - +

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Diversified mining major Glencore is considering the closure of some of its coal-mining operations in South Africa, which would reduce its overall South African production by at least five-million saleable tons of coal a year and affect more than 1 000 employees.

This announcement by the London-, Hong Kong- and Johannesburg-listed company, headed by CEO Ivan Glasenberg, follows a detailed review of its Optimum Coal subsidiary, which was initiated because of ongoing financial hardship at Optimum, arising from difficult market conditions and the continued deterioration of the export coal price.
 
The company said in a media release that the affected operations included the Optimum opencast operations, large portions of the coal processing plants and associated support services, which would be placed on care and maintenance and considered for reopening should economic conditions improve.

Optimum produces 10-million tons of saleable coal a year from opencast and underground mines, half of it bought domestically by State-owned power utility Eskom and half of it exported.

Optimum intends retaining the underground mining operations as well as sufficient processing capacity at Optimum to ensure the continued supply of coal to Eskom’s coal-fired Hendrina power station.

Outlining that the proposed closure would affect about 1 070 employees, Glencore said that Optimum had informed the Department of Mineral Resources and relevant unions of the potential closures and would now enter into a Section 189 process with the recognised unions and employees to determine the settlement for all affected employees.

In addition, Optimum would ensure that the employee engagement process was conducted in line with applicable labour legislation.

Optimum would explore options for redeployment across the Glencore South African coal operations as well as putting in place support services for affected employees and their families.

The company added that it was continuing to review all of its coal operations in the light of the prevailing negative economic climate.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

Comments

Showroom

SABAT
SABAT

From batteries for boats and jet skis, to batteries for cars and quad bikes, SABAT Batteries has positioned itself as the lifestyle battery of...

VISIT SHOWROOM 
Stewarts & Lloyds
Stewarts & Lloyds

Stewarts & Lloyds today supplies steel and tube, pipe and fittings, valves, pumps, irrigation, fencing, profiling and roofing products. The cash...

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







sq:0.104 0.154s - 177pq - 4rq
Subscribe Now