Implats Sees Wider Loss as It Writes Down Rustenburg Assets
- Platinum miner plans to cut thousands of jobs, close shafts
- Results include writedowns of 9.7 billion rand, company says
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Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. said its annual loss will widen as the world’s second-largest producer of the metal takes a 9.7 billion-rand ($660 million) writedown, mostly on its struggling Rustenburg mining complex.
Implats, as the company is known, is shrinking the number of shafts at Rustenburg and said earlier this month it may cut about 13,000 jobs as focus shifts to newer, lower-cost mines. The company has struggled to reduce expenses at Rustenburg and profit margins in the platinum industry have come under added pressure this year after prices for the metal sank to the lowest in a decade.