JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Mineral sands miner Kenmare Resources on Friday reported that operations at its Moma mine, in Mozambique, had restarted, following a temporary suspension owing to extralegal industrial action.
All employees had returned to work after embarking on the industrial action in response to cost-cutting measures, including retrenchments, implemented by the company.
Kenmare in February announced that it would retrench between 15% and 20% of employees at the mine, as other efforts to reduce unit costs and conserve cash had been insufficient to offset low mineral sands prices.
After tripartite discussions with the Ministry of Labour, the union and management, the parties agreed that shift allowances would be reduced, work patterns would be changed and 162 people would be retrenched. This was significantly lower than the initially planned retrenchment of 350 people.
Kenmare stood by its tripartite agreement made with the union and Department of Labour concerning retrenchments and changes to allowances.