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AngloGold chooses machines over people

Cape Town - In another blow to the mining industry, AngloGold Ashanti [JSE:ANG] is set to also shed jobs as it prepares to roll out its mechanisation programme, the SABC reported on Monday.

The programme would entail using state of the art machines instead of traditional labour.

Analyst Ian Cruickshanks told the broadcaster that the process could result in possible job losses.  

“It’s an inevitability I’m afraid," he said.

He said the firm intends mining more than 4 kilometers underground and will have to face huge temperatures.

"It’s just not possible for manual labour to go and spend 8 hours picking at a rockface in those sort of conditions", Cruickshanks said.

AngloGold Ashanti CEO Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan said that the programme is yielding good results and will be rolled out across at least two of the key South African mines.

Ealier on Monday, the miner reported a near sixfold rise in first-quarter earnings as operations recovered from a wave of illegal strikes late last year.

Production rose to 899 000 ounces from 859 000 ounces in the previous quarter.

"The stronger performance relative to the previous quarter reflects the recovery from the strike action at the South Africa operations which hampered production towards the end of last year," the company said in a statement, according to Reuters.

On Friday, Anglo Platinum (Amplats) [JSE:AMS] announced that it will cut 6 000 jobs, less than half the 14 000 initially proposed.

For Amplats, reining in costs and cutting production enough to raise the global price of platinum is crucial to getting back to profit, the news agency reported.

The company said it would aim to produce 2.2 to 2.4 million ounces a year, up from the 2.1 to 2.3 million ounces targeted in the original plan.

The revisions should deliver R3.8bn ($423m) in savings by 2015.

- SABC, Reuters





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