South Africa's leading gold producer to shed nearly 2,000 jobs

South Africa's largest gold producer Gold Fields announced Monday it was shedding nearly 2,000 jobs at one of its sites as it shifts to more mechanised mining methods."The company initiated a voluntary retrenchment (redundancy) package because mining in our depleted mines was becoming difficult," Gold Fields spokesman Daniel Thole said."Our aim is to trim operating cost and increase productivity."A total of 1,885 workers will be let go at the South Deep mine south of Johannesburg, he said.The company said the move results from the mine's shift from labour intensive mining to mechanised methods and will cost the company 70 million rand (9.6 million dollars, six million euros).Thole rejected union claims that workers opted for redundancy rather than accept offers from the company to be transferred to what they considered dangerous mines."We have ceased operations in two of our depleted mines, Driefontein and Kloof. That dismisses claims by the union that we were transferring workers to Kloof," said Sole.The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said Gold Fields had offered to move workers from South Deep to Kloof and another mine called Beatrix."Workers chose to go home rather than risk their lives," said NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka.Besides South Africa, Gold Fields has mines in Ghana and Australia and is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the New York Stock Exchange and the Dubai International Financial Exchange. It employs some 47,000 peopleAbout 200 people are killed in South Africa's mines every year.

Read More...

[Source: Business News]