Platinum miner Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) last week concluded negotiations with key stakeholders and unions on its restructuring plans and would proceed with the process that would see about 6 000 operational jobs and 900 corporate jobs being cut.

The world’s largest platinum producer last year initially announced that 14 000 jobs would be cut as part of its restructuring plan, but this was later scaled back to 6 000 under a revised business proposal and following criticism from government and unions.

The company’s restructuring programme, which followed an extensive review of Amplats’ business, was aimed at restoring the company’s profitability to ensure its long-term sustainability and increasing its competitiveness in the global platinum mining industry.

“We are at a critical stage of the process and this restructuring will be a crucial step to enable us to return to profitability and to focus capital allocations on our mines that are best placed to sustain the business and create employment opportunities over the long term,” Amplats CEO Chris Griffith said.

He added that a month’s notice period for affected employees would start on September 1.

“We are very aware of the impact this process has on our employees and we are working hard to finalise the details of our Social Impact Mitigation Plan, which is aimed at minimising the impact on employees and affected communities,” he added.

Amplats’ restructuring plan would reduce its baseline production to between 2.2-million and 2.4-million ounces a year in the short to medium term, and included consolidating its Rustenburg operations into three operating mines by integrating the Khuseleka 2 and Khomanani 1 and Khomanani 2 mines into surrounding mines.

“The rationalisation and reconfiguration of these marginal oper- ations will result in a reduction in production capacity of about 250 000 oz/y, and by an additional 100 000 oz/y in the medium term,” Amplats stated.

Meanwhile, its Union North and Union South mines would be consolidated into one mine, with the disposal of the mine still planned to take place in due course.
Further, overhead costs would be reduced and efficiencies improved.

“The implementation of our proposals will help us create stability for the business and we look forward to working constructively with all our key stakeholders during this time for the benefit of all. Once we have restructured the business, we expect to be in a better position to provide more secure employment for our employees and add the much- needed value to all our key stakeholders,” Griffith concluded.