Sibanye-Stillwater plans to hold discussions with organised labour and other affected parties about the potential restructuring of its South African gold operations as a result of sustained losses and operational difficulties at the Kloof 4 shaft.
Despite recent high gold prices, the company has reported continuing losses, therefore it has decided to confer with stakeholders after several failed attempts to address productivity concerns and other operational constraints at the Kloof 4 shaft, such as seismicity and cooling constraints.
The recent incident at Kloof 4 shaft, which resulted in extensive damage to the shaft system, did not help matters.
The combined effects of these variables have led to a precipitous decline in production and threaten the Kloof 4 shaft's ability to remain economically viable.
The mining company has promised that it will work with affected parties to explore potential retrenchment avoidance and mitigation strategies, as well as potential operations and service reduction options.
“We will engage with all relevant stakeholders in an effort to avoid job losses while attempting to limit the impact on the remainder of the operations and employees at the SA gold operations”, said company executive vice president and head of the South African gold operations Richard Cox.
There are now 2,389 permanent employees and 581 contract employees at Kloof 4 shaft who could be affected by the proposed restructure.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
