WESIZWE Platinum has unveiled drastic measures after failing to commission its Bakubung mine in South Africa’s North West province, announcing today it would rip up its production plans and reduce 70% of its staff.
The company, which is 45% owned by China-Africa Jinchuan Investments, has toiled for more than 17 years to develop Bakubung, a platinum group metals mine which initially pencilled in production of 420,000 ounces a year.
As part of its restructuring, it said Bakubung said its mining rate of achieving one million tons of metal-bearing ore a year would be abandoned in favour of a single-stage increase in mining to 3.5 million tons a year.
“This revised strategy will necessitate a reduction in the number of employees required to establish and sustain the production profile contemplated in the updated business plan,” it said. “The proposed restructuring is expected to affect approximately 497 employees across various staff levels and disciplines throughout the business,” Wesizwe said. Bakubung employs a total of 706 people.
Wesizwe said that it keeping its current number of employees would fail to address its “operational challenges and its imperative to implement efficiency measures and restore a trajectory of profitability and growth”.
Wesizwe was forced to lay off staff during the last platinum sector cyclical downturn between 2022 and 2025 which led to a deterioration in labour relations. Three strikes, one of them an illegal underground sit-in, further hampered Bakubung’s ramp-up.
The restructuring comes amid supportive metal prices for platinum group metals but in the case of Wesizwe it has suffered from a litany of technical problems. The mining method has been changed while the company has also run into problems with the mine’s concentrator.
There are also financial and governance issues. Shares in the company remain suspended on the JSE after failing to publish its numbers on time. In March and May, it published its interim and full year results respectively for the 2025 financial year.
