Windhoek
Close to 200 retrenched Weatherly Mining workers yesterday morning met the president of the Namibia National Labour Organisation (Nanlo), Evilastus Kaaronda, to discuss the way forward. This is after Weatherly Mining on Monday announced it would retrench 220 employees from its Otjihase and Matchless mines due to declining global copper prices.
The meeting was held at Ella Du Plessis High School’s hostel hall. At the meeting Kaaronda briefed workers on various options.
“We don’t need to accept this proposal by the company; we can return this proposal and request the financial records of the company to determine whether this planned retrenchment is genuine,” he told workers, adding that the other option was to file a certificate of unresolved dispute with the labour commissioner.
He said yet another option is to write an urgent letter to the company to request an urgent meeting.
Weatherly Mining on Monday announced the conversion of the Otjihase and Matchless mines, also known as its Central Operations, to project development status to prepare for future production expansion, while focussing on the Tschudi mine production ramp-up.
The company said the two mines are currently not commercially viable due to a continuing decline in global copper prices.
“Due to the 2015 copper prices reaching the lowest level in six years, copper production at Central Operations is no longer commercially viable. Though the copper price is outside our control, the measures we are taking are intended to ensure a probative long-term future for the combined business, including Tschudi, Otjihase and Matchless,” said Chief Executive Officer Craig Thomas.
He added that Weatherly Mining would engage all relevant authorities and the rest of the Namibian mining sector to provide assistance and find alternative employment for affected workers.
The company said it would engage a small team to maintain the two affected mines, including the processing plant infrastructure, to be ready to commence with operations when conditions improve. In addition, the project development plan will include drilling work to improve the definition of remaining copper ore resources, as well as work to create additional access tunnels into new areas planned for future underground mining.
“The objective of this continued project development is to enable a rapid resumption of production when copper prices improve and also to allow future production to deliver larger tonnages of copper at lower costs than this achieved over the last five years of operation.
“This, in turn, is expected to allow the mines to generate acceptable profits in times of higher copper prices and to be able to survive future periods of low copper prices,” reads a statement from Weatherly Mining.
Meanwhile, operations at the new Tschudi copper mine in northern Namibia have been ramped up successfully this year and the company said the operations would be unaffected by the changes at Central Operations.
After the first copper production in February this year, Tschudi continues to increase production volumes and expects to achieve 17 000 tonnes of refined copper cathode per annum during the December 2015 quarter.