[miningmx.com] — Shiva Uranium, who took over Uranium One’s Dominium Reefs Mine, has wasted no time cutting jobs at the mine despite
promising the Competition Commission that no job losses would result from the
takeover.
Shiva took over the mine from Uranium officially in April this year, after the
Competition Commission had approved the transaction.
According to trade union Solidarity, the company has announced in a Section 189 notice that 111 of the current 197 employees could be affected by a planned
retrenchment process.
These employees form part of the care and maintenance team that still works at the mine following the discontinuation of Uranium One’s mining activities.
Solidarity said the company maintains that it will retain its own management and core support personnel only and that a contractor, JIC Mining Services, would take over the mining activities in future.
Solidarity spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans said it was obvious that the promises that Shiva’s holding company, Islandsite Investments, and Uranium One made to the Competition Commission have not been kept.
“The documents submitted to the Competition Commission state clearly that the transaction will not have a detrimental effect on the provision of work at the mine and that retrenchments were not anticipated. In addition, it is emphasised that the transaction will have a positive effect, seeing that the number of employees will increase significantly once the mine returns to its full level of production,” Kleynhans said.
He added that Solidarity would be notifying the Competition Commission and the Department of Mineral Resources that the company had backtracked on its promises.