Glencore to cut jobs at South African vanadium and ferrochrome operations
Glencore announced on Monday that it has begun a retrenchment at its Rustenburg joint venture ferrochrome and vanadium operations, as economic pressures continue.
According to Glencore's estimates, South Africa has approximately 80% the known world chrome ore reserves. This makes the country a major player in the global ferrochrome industry.
In May, however, power outages, increasing electricity prices, and economic pressures forced miners to stop production at the venture’s ferrochrome Boshoek Wonderkop and Lion smelters.
The joint venture between Glencore and Merafe Resources operates the smelters.
Merafe stated in a separate press release that the (retrenchment process) was a result from the continued economic pressures faced by the South African ferrochrome industry, and the absence of industry solutions which could ease the pressures on a near-to-medium term basis.
This process will impact the Boshoek smelter and Wonderkop in Rustenburg. Glencore also said that the Lion smelter was being evaluated, and its capacity could be reduced to less than half.
The London-listed company also announced that its Rhovan Vanadium operations in North West Province and its Carbon Division in Emalahleni will be affected.
Glencore said that as part of the process, it will continue to streamline and restructure support functions in its mining division, including at Rustenburg, Lydenburg, and head office, and shared services functions, as anticipated.
It is important to remember that this process is not predetermined. Glencore did not specify how many affected jobs there are, but said that a notice had been sent out to all recognized unions and affected employees.
Willie Venter said that Glencore had already been hard hit with 10 of 22 furnaces being permanently or temporarily shut down. He warned that the closure of the remaining furnaces would affect 2,425 direct and 17,000 indirect positions. (Reporting and editing by Sandra Maler; Nqobile Dudla)
(source: Reuters)
