African Copper Mine in financial doldrums
Pini Bothoko | Wednesday October 14, 2015 14:32
The cost cutting and saving measures that ACM implemented early this year following the closure of Thakadu Mine seem not to be working well as the mine is reportedly bankrupt. ACM implemented the measures as well as planning to work smarter by increasing production at its Mowana operations.
The measures were implemented to augment for the fall in revenues caused by the decrease in copper prices.
An insider at the mine said the mines’ financial constraints had resulted in some employees not being paid their September salaries on time. ACM’s General Manager, Kenneth Masogo said that due to tough challenges as a result of lower copper prices that have drastically affected the mine’s revenue stream, fulfilling their business obligations in general is a challenge. “Like all challenges, we do overcome these through the continued support from our shareholders. Paying creditors and/or salaries late could be due to a combination of factors such as low copper production, low copper price and difficult trading terms caused by reduction in risk appetite, especially from our trading partners,” said Masogo.
He added: “Management salaries were delayed, for the month of September, because copper production (source of revenue) was behind. This has been resolved by making all due sales. Kindly note that there are no plans to close our operations. We are working around the clock to overcome our short term challenges since we believe in the strong long term viability of our business.”
About 320 people are likely to lose their jobs should the mine close its operations.