African Rainbow Minerals cuts jobs as H1 profits halve

  • Reuters
  • Stock Market News
African Rainbow Minerals cuts jobs as H1 profits halve
Credit: © Reuters.

JOHANNESBURG, March 11 (Reuters) - Diversified mining group
African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) ARIJ.J said on Friday its
first-half profit halved due to sharply softer commodity prices,
prompting layoffs and costs cuts to stay afloat.
Headline earnings per share, a measure that strips off
certain one off items, in the six months to December reached 233
cents from 473 cents a year earlier.
ARM, which has interests in platinum, iron ore, coal,
copper , and gold saw lower prices in all of its commodities
except for chrome.
"ARM has responded proactively to the commodity price
downturn and has implemented operating and capital cost
reduction initiatives at all its operations," the company said
in a statement.
The company operates joint ventures with Anglo American (LON: AAL )
Platinum AMSJ.J , Assore ASRJ.J , Impala Platinum IMPJ.J ,
Glencore GLEN.L and Vale VALE5.SA .
ARM cut planned spending for the first half of 2016 by 15
percent to 1.4 billion rand ($92 million) mainly from
curtailments in the ferrous metals Black Rock Project, which is
its most capital intensive venture.
The company said it would cut jobs at its platinum mines
Modikwa and Nkomati, Beeshoek iron ore mine and Khumani chrome
mines but did not say how many positions were on the line.
All of these mines are in South Africa, where job cuts are a
thorny political issue against the backdrop of an unemployment
rate of around 25 percent and glaring income disparities.
The Lubambe copper mine in Zambia, a joint venture with
Vale, was placed under review to lower cash requirements and
preserve its resource value.
($1 = 15.2525 rand)

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