7th May 2015 14:14
LONDON (Alliance News) - Lonmin PLC Thursday said it is holding talks with unions and members of staff about lowering labour costs by reducing its headcount by around 3,500 people, which it hopes to achieve on a "voluntary basis".
The miner said it was taking the measures to reduce labour costs by 10% in response to the low platinum group metal prices, adding it would only make "forced retrenchments" as a "last resort", it said.
"The mining industry is going through another challenging economic cycle and we need to make difficult decisions to maintain the resilience of our business and protect employment. Our cost controls so far have been encouraging but the price of our metals is beyond our control and we need to make further savings, including seeking voluntary reductions in our labour force which represents around 60% of our total costs," said Chief Executive Ben Magara.
"These are tough conversations but I am encouraged by our employees' appreciation of the situation. That is a reflection of the huge effort all parties have made to understand one another better in recent months and we are all seeing the benefit of that now," he added.
Lonmin shares were down 3.6% at 145.50 pence per share on Thursday afternoon.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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