21st Jul 2014 06:50
LONDON (Alliance News) - Anglo American PLC will on Monday unveil plans to sell off major platinum mines in South Africa, cutting staff by 20,000, only a month after five month long strikes ended in the country, according to The Sunday Times.
The move represents cuts of a fifth of the company's overall workforce and is a key part of Mark Cutifani's plans to cut costs and improve the company's operations, since he took over as chief executive last year.
Prior to the market open Monday, Anglo American released a statement saying its platinum mining subsidiary Anglo American Platinum Ltd will contribute an underlying loss of USD1 million for the six months ended June 30, which is adjusted to remove special items and remeasurements, and any related tax and non-controlling interests. In the prior year period, Anglo American Platinum Limited contributed an underlying profit of USD92 million to Anglo American results.
Anglo American Platinum also Monday reported IFRS headline earnings of USD14 million, compared to USD140 million a year ago.
The pre-market statement made no mention of mine disposals.
The Sunday Times revealed the possible move last month, stating that the disposals would be part of a GBP2.35 billion clearout. Earmarked for disposal are the company?s oldest and deepest shafts in the impoverished mining region of Rustenberg, South Africa, some of which have been in operation since the 1950s, it said at the time.
The company's platinum operations employ roughly 40,000 people, and it is the world's biggest producer of the key metal.
Reuters reported in April that if Anglo pushes ahead to divest under-performing platinum assets, a sale to a small South African company is seen as the most likely option.
The news comes a week after Anglo said its platinum production fell 40% in the second quarter ended June 30 as the now-ended platinum miners strike in South Africa hurt operations. The FTSE 100 miner said its platinum production fell 40% to 358,000 ounces for the three months ended June 30 from 594,000 during the same period the previous year, as workers from the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union only returned to work at the end of June.
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/business/Industry/article1436426.ece
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/20/us-anglo-ameri-platinum-employment-idUSKBN0FP0V820140720
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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