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Sibanye, already regarded as the leading producer of South African gold, has launched bids to buy Anglo American Platinum’s Rustenburg mines and the whole of its neighbour Aquarius Platinum, consisting of  Kroondaal, Mimosa, Marikana Platinum Mine and Platinum Mine retreatment facility. The merger hearing was yesterday, March 14.

The Rustenburg Mines currently comprise of three mines namely, Bathopele, Thembelani and Siphumelele and two concentrating plants.
Sibanye will acquire 100% of Aquarius, while it wants to buy Rustenburg’s three mines and concentrators. It’s estimated that 250 jobs would be lost at Rustenburg mines Kroondaal operation and the Bathopele Mine. Should the new entity made up Aquarius and Sibanye and called BidCo, and the newly formed Sibanye Rustenburg, be given the Tribune’s approval, there is expected to be an additional  260 jobs lost, as a result, because of overlap of some key positions. The Competition Commission has raised its concerns about the loss of 510 job losses. 

The two mergers were approved by the Competition Commission with conditions that included that there be no retrenchments as a result of the deal and that merging parties maintain the black economic empowerment policy presently in place at both mines, to protect small business suppliers.

The merging parties want amendments to the conditions, saying operationally they would need to reduce staff in the new structure because some positions would become redundant. The merging parties are asking that a timeframe be placed on the moratorium on retrenchment suggested by the Competition Commission, and say they comply with the Mining charter when it comes to BEE procurement schemes. The Charter does not prevent companies from changing the companies they employ and small and medium enterprises all have equal access to apply for tenders they argue.

The hearing was attended by Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Solidarity and UASA who would like at a time period be stipulated before job losses be implemented.

The Competition Tribunal is considering the matter.

Issued by Competition Tribunal