JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) says it is “shocked and saddened” by an announcement this week by diversified mining major Glencore that it was considering the closure of several coal-mining operations in South Africa, including the Optimum coal mine, in Mpumalanga.

“The proposed closure of these operations would affect approximately 1 000 permanent employees and 500 contractors. The decision to close down the operations has left our members shocked because they were not given any prior notice of closure before being invited by the management [on Wednesday] to a meeting at 17:00.

“Our members were shocked to hear about the closure of Optimum Coal Mine in the media,” NUM Highveld regional secretary Stanley Lebelo said in a statement on Thursday.

Mining Weekly Online reported on Wednesday that the London-, Hong Kong- and Johannesburg-listed miner was looking at reducing its overall South African production by at least five-million saleable tons of coal a year.

This followed a detailed review of its Optimum Coal subsidiary, which was initiated because of ongoing financial hardship at Optimum, arising from difficult market conditions and the continued deterioration of the export coal price.

The company said in a media release that the affected operations included the Optimum opencast operations, large portions of the coal processing plants and associated support services, which would be placed on care and maintenance and considered for reopening should economic conditions improve.

According to the union, Glencore management informed the NUM branch leadership at the Wednesday meeting that they planned to close the Optimum Coal mine because it had not made a profit since 2012.

“We are shocked and this is a catastrophe for our members. As NUM, we are unhappy and disturbed that Glencore would rush to issue section 189 [notices] without engaging and informing its employees first.

“They only informed their employees after they sent a press statement to the media. Our members feel deeply insulted and disrespected by Glencore for not informing them first about the closure,” Lebelo said.

The union further appealed to Glencore to reverse its decision and engage with employees before issuing a Section 189 notice.