Top South African miner cutting more jobs

Anglo American is planning more job cuts at its corporate office as it restructures its business by selling assets and spinning off its platinum unit.

People with knowledge of the matter said the company has sent notices to employees who are likely to be affected, asking not to be identified because a public announcement hasn’t been made.

Anglo American said in response to queries that the job cuts are in line with the company’s disposals and other restructuring plans.

Consultations have just begun, and the number of people affected has yet to be determined.

Anglo began restructuring the business last year after it had to fend off a $43 billion takeover bid by rival BHP Group Ltd.

It has sold its coking coal and nickel businesses and is on track to spin off most of its controlling holding in Anglo American Platinum by June.

It also plans to either sell or hold an initial public offering for its De Beers unit, which is the world’s biggest diamond company.

Most of its corporate staff are in South Africa, where the company was founded by Ernest Oppenheimer in 1917 to exploit the world’s biggest gold fields, the Witwatersrand.

During the isolation brought by apartheid, it expanded from mining into businesses ranging from banking to paper making.

After an initial round of divestments, it moved its headquarters to London in 1998.

The company slashed jobs at its main South African corporate office in 2023 and later fired workers at its iron ore unit, which it is retaining, and at Amplats.