JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South African gold producer Harmony believes that the National Union of Mineworkers’ (NUM’s) decision to seek legal advice around possible retrenchment of 2 100 workers at some of the gold miner’s operations, was premature.

Harmony Gold spokesperson Marian van der Walt said in an interview with Mining Weekly Online that the company was in the “early stages” of investigating possible retrenchments at its Brand and Evander 2, 5 and 7 shafts, at the Virginia operation.

“We have been telling the market for the last six months that Harmony would, at some stage, look to cut back its marginally producing shafts, simply because the ore bodies have been depleted and the mines have come to the end of their lives,” said Van der Walt.

Van der Walt said that the gold miner was not looking to simply retrench its workers, and that it was investigating alternatives.

“We are looking at alternatives to retrenchments. The first of which would be the shift from workers from the affected shafts to other operating shafts, as well as deploying workers to our growth projects. Another alternative is to offer voluntary retrenchment for workers close to retirement.”

The NUM could not be reached for comment at the time of writing, but financial daily Business Report quoted union spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka as saying that the union had received section 189 notices and that it had taken the documents to its attorneys for legal advice.

Van der Walt noted that NUM’s decision to seek legal advice was premature, as the gold producer was still in discussions with the unions around the possible solution.

So far, no deadline has been set for when the affected shafts would be officially closed.

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