It noted that under Section 189 of the Labour Relations Act, a reorganization may have an impact on up to 571 of its total 761 staff members. A decrease in PGM costs was one of the causes of the reorganization.
The issues at the Bakubung mine were made worse by a change in mining practices, the consequences of two strikes in 2022 and 2023, and a third unprotected, five-week stoppage. It stated that employees across the board and at all levels of the company will be impacted. About 45 percent of Wesizwe is owned by China Africa Jinchuan Ltd.
Wesizwe stated that there “simply does not appear to be any alternatives” to restructure because the mine was losing money and because it was necessary to “ensure that Bakubung is placed on a path of profitability and growth” in a statement to the JSE.
In an effort to reduce the bloated structure that leads to inefficiencies, Bakubung “as things stand Bakubung has already stopped overtime and weekend work, did not renew contracts of mining contract services and fixed-term contracts of non-critical staff and placed a moratorium on recruitment of non-core and critical staff,” the statement read.
Due to low PGM pricing, Bloomberg News reported on November 24 that Anglo American was thinking about reducing employment at Anglo American Platinum.
Plans for restructuring that will impact 4,095 full-time employees and contractors at Sibanye-Stillwater’s PGM mines were revealed on October 25. There are four affected shafts: the Simunye shaft at Kroondal, the Rowland and four Belt shafts at Marikana, and the Siphumelele shaft at its Rustenburg section.
Impala Platinum announced earlier this month that it was giving South African employees at some of its mines the option to voluntarily leave their jobs.
According to a Reuters representative for Implats, Johan Theron, “we are obviously doing everything to reduce costs.” “You always start with labor by offering voluntary separation packages because labor is a big cost component,” the man stated. The PGM miner began implementing head office cuts in October and is already expanding them to the shafts under its Rustenburg Lease.
Although the price of palladium has dropped 37.2% in US dollars since the year’s beginning, there have also been significant price drops for rhodium and platinum, which have dropped 344% and 13.7%, respectively, this year.
