Anglo American suffers continuing strike losses in South Africa

3rd Oct 2013 14:54

Miner strikes have lost Anglo American's South African platinum arm an average of 3,100 ounces per day in the last week.Last Friday thousands of workers at Anglo American Platinum's (Amplats) Rustenburg complex downed tools in protest over the company's plans for job cuts. On Thursday Amplats said in a statement that less than 20% of Rustenburg staff had since attended work. The union with the largest representation at the company, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), called the strike in objection to management's plans to cut costs at Rustenburg by consolidating five mines into three and consequently reducing the headcount through "retrenchments" of 4,800 workers.AMCU has said its members would only return to work once management had agreed to a position of "zero forced retrenchments".Amplats, which is an 80% owned subsidiary of London-listed parent Anglo American, said the Rustenburg mines were losing more than 1 billion rand ($100m) every six months.The company's original plans were to remove 14,000 jobs, before they were denounced by government and unions.Shares in Anglo American were down 1.7% to 1,477p at 15:20 on Thursday. OH