Energy coal-miner BHP Billiton Energy Coal South Africa (Becsa) might close its 182-person corporate office in Witbank in response to the rapid deterioration in the global market for energy coal, the company said late last month.

It said that the running costs of the Becsa central services office were in the region of R1-million a month.

“Becsa is considering a number of alter- natives for reducing costs. One of these options is the closure of its corporate office in Witbank,” BHP Billiton’s Bronwyn Wilkinson told Mining Weekly.

It was expected that some of the corporate office staff would be redeployed to Becsa’s operations. The announcement affected 182 people.

“We believe most of the people will be relocated to the operations – either in vacancies or performing the same function at the opera-tions,” Wilkinson added.
Some staff would be relocated to the Johannesburg offices.

In the event that employees could not be placed at the operations, voluntary severance packages would be considered as a last resort.

BHP Billiton said that it remained committed to its energy-coal operations in South Africa, as demonstrated by its $1,425-bil- lion (R13-billion) investments in the Klipspruit and Douglas Middelburg Optimisation pro-jects.

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