Africa's biggest gold miner AngloGold Ashanti (AGA) is planning to retrench 8,500 mine workers as part of restructuring its South African operations. AGA sent notices to workers union end of June notifying them of the pending retrenchments. AngloGold Ashanti’s South African operations employs about 28,000 people, including contractors. Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane reportedly met with the Chief Executive Officer of AGA, Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan, to discuss the matter, and also instructed the Minerals and Petroleum Board to verify whether the information provided by the company motivating for the retrenchments took into consideration industry commitments to save jobs. Trade union Solidarity reportedly confirmed that its members have received retrenchment notices. National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) AngloGold Ashanti shaft stewards also met to deliberate on section 189(3) notices issued by the company and resolved to oppose the retrenchments as well as engage the company and government departments on the matter. Speaking on the matter, AngloGold Ashanti chief executive officer is quoted as having said "This is a difficult decision which follows a period of significant and - ultimately - unsustainable losses, and also the evaluation of the options available to return our South African business to profitability,”

News items related to this story are below: