Anglo American poised to cut jobs across platinum business
THE world’s largest platinum producer Anglo American is eyeing plans to slash costs at its South African mines as it prepares to unveil a long-awaited report into the future of its platinum business.
The FTSE 100 firm owns 80 per cent of South African miner Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), which it placed under review last year after a stretch of bad performance. The outcome of the review, which has been running since February, has now been rubber stamped by the Amplats board and will be released in the coming days. Thousands of jobs will be cut under the proposals, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.
The firm delayed the release of the report in November following strikes by workers in South Africa. Any proposals to slash jobs are likely to be met with a fierce backlash by the heavily unionised platinum workers in South Africa.
Last week Anglo American appointed Mark Cutifani, who ran a South African gold miner, to become its next chief executive.