Johannesburg - Gold Fields is considering scaling down its much-vaunted training academy as the global mining industry sheds thousands of jobs.
Fin24.com/Miningmx has spoken to a number of people in the industry who said Gold Fields was to cut back its Business and Leadership Academy near Carletonville and possibly bring in a partner to share running costs.
"Gold Fields is not in the process of closing down or down-scaling its Business and Leadership Academy," said spokesperson Marritt Claassens.
"We have commenced with a process of reviewing the academy's business model and strategic objective, with the aim to optimise the services the academy provides to its internal Gold Fields clients."
There are growing fears that the sharp decline in commodity prices which has caused companies to lay off workers, shelve expansion plans and cut back production will lead to training being abandoned for fiscal reasons.
"I hope what is happening in the sector now will not kill off training initiatives. There has been a tendency to shut down training when times are tough; it happened in the late 1990s," says Thabo Gazi, the chief inspector of South Africa's mines.
Training is critical in the drive to make South Africa's notoriously dangerous mines safer.
Skills shortage 'won't disappear'
The mines inspectorate has 23 people attending the Gold Fields training academy. The inspectorate is short of skilled people, which has made monitoring the sector for health and safety violations difficult.
Trade union Solidarity calculates 20 544 jobs have been lost in the South African mining sector out of a workforce in excess of 400 000. The National Union of Mineworkers said Gold Fields might lay off 1 500 more workers.
More job losses are expected from the embattled diamond sector, with De Beers in talks with unions. A reduction of 1 400 jobs has been mentioned.
During the strong run-up in commodity prices in recent years, the mining industry found itself starved of skilled workers, leading companies to scramble to train their workers.
"The skills shortage will certainly not disappear," says Solidarity spokesperson Reint Dykema.
He believes the skill shortage will be worse than ever after the commodity cycle bottoms and begins recovering.
"The first thing people do in a downturn is cut training and research and reduce the amount of artisans in training. So in the short term the companies are saving money, but they are creating long-term problems," he says.
Peter Major, a fund manager for Cadiz African Harvest, is puzzled by the retrenchments. He remembers that engineers were poached "left, right and centre" by Australia a few years back, but were now being sent home.
Major also expects the skills shortage to hit South Africa harder than ever once the mining sector recovers.
"We're not prepared. We've decimated all training facilities and we're laying off our workers by the thousands," he says.
Of concern to Solidarity is that mining companies are being overly hasty in the process of retrenching workers, Dykema says.
Lay-offs not the only option
"There are other options. Companies can put their workers on shorter shifts and therefore decrease wages slightly," he says. "We'd rather keep our workers in jobs than get them a wage increase."
According to Fin24.com's rough estimation, nearly 8% of jobs at major mining companies have been cut in recent months.
This calculation is based on the total global workforce of the big players in the mining industry and announcements from BHP Billiton, Anglo American, Rio Tinto, Xstrata and others in the past 3 months.
BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto alone have laid off 20 000 workers.
There are no accurate employment numbers available for the mining industry globally, because it includes such a broad geographic, economic and political spectrum.
"Eight percent sounds about right, but you should double whatever you calculate," says Major, referring to the numerous uncounted contractors who have had their contracts cancelled by mining companies cutting costs.
"I worry that they are not being counted, because they're usually the first to get the bullet and put on the street," he says.
Solidarity has a figure of 1 982 jobs lost by contractors, but this doesn't come close to the real figure, which is extremely difficult to determine.
"South Africa has learnt nothing. Instead, it has unlearnt everything," says Major. "Our mining industry is a shell of what it used to be."
- Miningmx.com
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