South African platinum group metals miners Wesizwe Platinum has confirmed that 429 jobs have been affected by the operational restructuring at its Bakubung platinum mine.
Wesizwe in June started a Section 189A process to discuss potential job losses at the operation with employees and labour unions, with the company initially having warned that nearly 500 employees across various staff levels and disciplines throughout the business might be affected.
This follows after the company, which employs 706 people, announced in March that it had decided to halt its previously adopted phased ramp-up approach, including a one-million-tonne-a-year production strategy, and instead pursue a revised development strategy based on a single-stage ramp-up to a 3.5-million-tonne-a-year operation.
Wesizwe says that, following consultations with employees and unions, 399 employees elected and were approved to take voluntary separation packages, while 30 employees were retrenched.