Twickenham to retrench 1000

BURGERSFORT – On Monday Anglo American Platinum announced that it would place its Twickenham Mine on care and maintenance. One thousand employees will be retrenched.
Chief executive, Mr Chris Griffith announced at a mining conference that 1 000 people will be directly affected by this.
Platinum prices have plummeted in recent years. The future is not looking any brighter.
Ms Mpumi Sithole, media manager at Anglo American, responded to Steelburger/Lydenburg News’ media queries regarding the possible job cuts.
“In managing for the current low-price environment, we have deferred all capital projects until at least 2017. This has, in 2015, led to the demobilisation of the Twickenham project to move from a conventional to a mechanised mining design and the reduction of the operation’s mining footprint to a single shaft,” she said.
“However, over the past year the US-dollar basket price of platinum group metals (PGMs) has reduced further by approximately 30 per cent, which necessitates that the company intensify and accelerate changes to its portfolio to ensure its financial sustainability.”
Sithole said at current price levels Twickenham stood to operate at an estimated loss of more than
R1,5 billion over the next five years.
“Having reviewed various options, the board has approved that the process towards placing the operation on care and maintenance commences. Further announcements will be made as this process develops.”
On Tuesday an indaba was held at the mine. Sithole said she attended it as a delegate, so no company feedback could be provided.
“I will gladly share further details with you as they become available,” she said.
Residents in the area reacted with shock to the latest retrenchments on Steelburger/Lydenburg News’ Facebook page. Comments included that an increase in poverty would now be seen, while others said praying for a good outcome was now the only option.
In January Dilokong ASA Metals in Limpopo also declared its intention to
retrench hundreds of employees.
According to the mine, the retrenchments are due to the continuous drop in ore quantity and the depleted chrome price, as well as recent community unrest that occurred in the Driekop area.
The mine added that numerous Section 54 stoppage notices issued by the Department of Mineral Resources caused a drop of more than 15 per cent production for last year.
Mr Dawie Roodt, chief economist of Efficient Group and presenter of Ontbytsake on kykNET, spoke to the newspaper regarding the current situation surrounding the mines in the area.
“South Africa has two main industries, namely agriculture and mining. As you are aware, the former is going through a difficult time on account of the recent draught and political issues. The mining industry, on the other hand, is also facing difficulties relating to labour and low-resource issues. In this day and age it is much more difficult to operate in the mining industry. Because of the difficulties facing the mine, depopulation will occur. This is, unfortunately, the reality we are facing,” he said.
“What this means for the rural area is that urbanisation will occur because everything is becoming more mechanised.
“People are becoming more service- industry related and on account of that urbanisation will occur. More than 50 per cent of the population already lives in cities. This is the nature of the modern economy. Unless there is some form of global growth, this is a cycle that will continue.”