Petra Sees Dispute With Union Resolved By Year-End

(IDEX Online News) – Petra Diamonds Ltd foresees its disagreement with South African unions over job cuts at its Helam mine in South Africa to be resolved before the end of this year, according to its finance director.

The National Union of Mineworkers and the Congress of South African Trade Unions strongly oppose to Petra's plans to axe 370 jobs at Helam, or around 7 percent of its total workforce.

The company, which acquired a 74 percent stake in the mine in 2005, said two months ago that it was considering options that might include putting its operations under care and maintenance.

"Our options with the mine, and we are talking with the unions, would be to either go into care and maintenance or close it," Finance Director David Abery told Reuters.

The miner, which operates five mines in South Africa and one in Tanzania, earlier this year disposed of its interest in the Sedibeng and Star mines, which along with Helam, made up its Fissure mines portfolio.

"Given that Helam is our smallest operation, it is not going to have significant effect on the group's results," Abery said.

Petra mined just 36,287 carats from Helam in the fiscal year that ended on June 30, down 50 percent from a year ago and accounting for slightly over 1 percent of its overall group production.