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Johannesburg - Global miner and commodities trader Glencore [JSE:GLN] said on Wednesday it had closed its Eland platinum mine in South Africa due to sinking prices of the metal.
Spokesperson Gugulethu Maqetuka said 818 workers were fired while other 60 others were moved to the firm's other operations.
It first made the announcement on August 18, saying it was in the process of reviewing the operation because of “ongoing poor market conditions in the platinum sector and difficult operational conditions at the mine.”
On October 1, Fin24 reported that Glencore is cutting a further 340 jobs in South Africa as the company closes depleted coal mines to withstand a downturn in commodity prices.
Glencore has eliminated 240 jobs at its South Witbank coal mine in the eastern Mpumalanga province and it plans to cut as many as 100 positions at the nearby Witcons coal-processing plant, the company said in an emailed response to questions on Wednesday.
Glencore has cut sections of its Optimum Coal unit this year, laying off 630 workers, responding to a more than 40% slump in coal prices since the start of 2014.
Optimum Coal is currently undergoing the local equivalent of bankruptcy protection proceedings. Platinum prices have dropped almost 50% since 2011. Glencore employs about 35 000 people in South Africa.
More than 22 000 mining jobs are at risk in the country, according to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
- Reuters and Bloomberg.
