JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Platinum group metals mining company Impala Platinum (Implats) on Thursday announced a strategic review of its Impala Rustenburg mine, which involves reducing its labour complement from 40 000 to 27 000 over two years, a reduction of 13 000.

The Johannesburg Securities Exchange-listed company headed by CEO Nico Muller, expressed commitment to a value-focused strategy, involving “drastic” restructuring to transition the operation to “a sustainable future position”.

Restructuring to be implemented over a two-year period will result in a reduction of 11 operating shafts to six operating shafts.

That will result in production being reduced from 750 000 oz a year to 520 000 oz a year.

The target is to reduce the all-in unit cost from R29 016 a platinum ounce to less than R24 500 a platinum ounce.

The company said that financial resources are in place to ensure that Implats remains fully funded.

“The only option for conventional producers today is fundamentally to restructure loss-making operations to address cash-burn and to create lower-cost, profitable businesses,” Muller stated in a release to Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly Online.