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Glencore rejects NUM’s allegations as baseless. We have continually engaged with all parties relating to the consultation process, including NUM and the Department of Mineral Resources in order to determine whether measures were available to avoid the closure of a number of Optimum’s operations and the resultant job losses. It was demonstrated during these sessions that these operations are financially not viable in the current market conditions and that there are no measures available to avoid the retrenchments.

Glencore has agreed to provide funding to Optimum to enable Optimum to pay the full retrenchment costs as tabled at the CCMA and will offer assistance to affected employees through re-training programmes to enable them to plan for the future. This includes training in areas such as portable skills and financial management. The retrenchment packages offered are above the industry standard. Optimum will also consider redeploying some of the employees to other parts of the business should vacancies be available.

The use of specialist contractors or service providers is widely used in the mining industry.

The underground service provider has a long term contract, has the specialist operating and maintenance skills and owns the underground mining equipment.

Issued by Glencore