Mining Weekly reported that Energy coal miner BHP Billiton Energy Coal South Africa might close its 182 person corporate office in Witbank in response to the rapid deterioration in the global market for energy coal.

The company said that the running costs of the Becsa central services office were in the region of ZAR 1 million a month.

BHP Billiton’s Ms Bronwyn Wilkinson said that “Becsa is considering a number of alternatives for reducing costs. One of these options is the closure of its corporate office in Witbank.”

It was expected that some of the corporate office staff would be redeployed to Becsa’s operations. The announcement affected 182 people.

Ms Wilkinson said that “We believe most of the people will be relocated to the operations either in vacancies or performing the same function from the operations.”

In the event that employees could not be placed at the operations, voluntary separation packages would be considered as a last alternative.

BHP Billiton said that it remained committed to its energy coal operations in South Africa, as demonstrated by its USD 1,425 billion investments in the Klipspruit and Douglas Middelburg optimization projects.

(Sourced from Miningweekly.com)