Business
South Africa: Amplats to sell mines and layoff 14,000
Platinum miner Lonmin, closed one of its 11 shafts in Rustenburg in September, and plans to cut management-level specialist jobs.
Meanwhile official figures released Tuesday showed mining production fell by 4.5 percent year-on-year in November, with contraction especially in copper (52.7 percent) and gold (32.2 percent) output.
Amplats vowed to try to replace jobs with new posts in “housing, infrastructure and small business development” in the regions that habitually send laborers to the mines, notably the Eastern Cape province.
The world’s number one platinum producer warned Monday that its 2012 earnings would probably show a loss of 491 to 628 cents per share, down from a profit of 1,365 cents per share in 2011.
A reassessment of the value of its assets resulted in a write-down of 463 million rand (US$53 million), it said.
Copyright 2013 AFP
