GOLD SECTOR JOBS
Under pressure gold miner Pan African to retrench 1,700
More retrenchments are looming in SA’s embattled gold sector as miner Pan African Resources has begun negotiations to lay off 1,722 people out of 1,812 at Evander Gold Mine. Gold miners are under pressure from a flat gold price in dollars coupled with a stronger rand, which means they are receiving less rand revenue for their production. And they are facing rising costs of labour and electricity. This will be the second retrenchment at Evander in less than a year, after 628 employees were laid off in the first half of 2017, with 147 contractors. Pan African confirmed a statement from the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) saying it had been served with a section 189 notice. The NUM said the reason given for the planned job cuts was that Evander was an old mine with deteriorating infrastructure and high input costs. A Pan African spokesman said it would release more information "when appropriate". The NUM said it was "totally opposed" to the retrenchments, which showed a need for mi...
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