South African Iron Ore Major Kumba Cuts 1,772 Jobs

Mining Weekly reported that Kumba Iron Ore (JSE:KIO) has cut 1,772 jobs following the closure of its Thabazimbi mine, in Limpopo in an attempt to survive the low iron ore price.
As quoted in the market news:

Out of a previous complement of 572, only 221 permanent and fixed-term employees remained at head office, with the 351 head office jobs cut by the Anglo American group company in the first quarter representing a 61% reduction and a saving of R200-million a year.
A 31% reduction of permanent and fixed-term employees is under consultation at Kumba’s Sishen and Kolomela iron-ore mines in the Northern Cape as part of a Section 189A legal process, which will cut permanent and fixed-term employees by 261 people, reducing the employee complement from 846 to 585.
Kumba’s closure of its Thabazimbi mine, in Limpopo, will cut permanent employees by 800 and fixed-term employees by 360, taking the total job cuts carried out so far by the JSE-listed company to 1 772.
In presenting 61% lower headline earnings for the six months to June 30, Kumba CEO Norman Mbazima said that more than 200 individual cost-cutting measures undertaken in the six months to June 30 had reduced controllable costs by R1.8-billion. The company was now targeting a decreased break-even cash iron-ore price of $45/t, a far cry from the $135/t averages of 2013.

Click here to read the full Mining Weekly report.