Werner Menges
5 December 2008
THE Mineworkers Union of Namibia is not buying the explanation given by copper mining and smelting company Weatherly International for its decision to close all its copper mines in Namibia.
"Weatherly Mining Namibia should not be allowed to use the copper price as a scapegoat to run away from the mess they have created," Bro Joseph Hengari, the General Secretary of the Mineworkers Union of Namibia (MUN), charged at a media conference in Windhoek yesterday.
Charging that the financial difficulties that Weatherly claims to be finding itself in should be attributed to mismanagement rather than a sharp drop in the world copper price, Hengari called on Government to step in and nationalise the company's mines.
Weatherly announced a week ago that it would be closing its mines at Otjihase east of Windhoek and Tschudi near Tsumeb.
The company had announced last month that it would be closing its mines at Tsumeb West and Matchless west of Windhoek.
The closures were attributed to a major decline in the price of copper, which has dropped from close to US$9 000 a ton in July this year to a current price of around US$3 420 a ton.
Weatherly, whose subsidiary Weatherly Mining Namibia is operating the mines, has stated that the mines would be kept on a "care and maintenance" basis, which would enable the company to resume mining operations once the copper price has improved to a level where mining becomes economically viable again.
Weatherly will continue to operate its Tsumeb-based copper smelter through Namibia Customs Smelters, which is another subsidiary of the company.
According to the company, about 250 people are employed at the smelter, where expansion plans are continuing.
The company this week announced that it was in the process of finalising a loan agreement which would secure financing of US$11 million (about N$110 million) for the expansion of the smelter.
According to the MUN, 643 people employed at the Otjihase and Tschudi mines are set to lose their jobs with the closure of the mines.
With the workers on average each having five dependants, this would mean that more than 3 200 people are going to be without bread on their tables soon, Hengari indicated.
The two mines will still be in operation until around December 20, the Managing Director of Weatherly Mines Namibia and Namibia Custom Smelters, Hans Nolte, has told The Namibian.
Hengari however claimed yesterday that the notice that the company gave the affected workers last week to inform them of the mines' closure and the termination of their employment "is materially flawed" because the situation is not yet so bad that it warrants a complete closure of the mines.
"The fact that the company is bankrupt - if this is true - is mainly because of mismanagement," Hengari charged.
"Since its inception Weatherly Mining Namibia has been run by the failed inherited apartheid managers, from the time of TCL and Ongopolo, which history shows are generally incompetent and proven failures."
Hengari claimed that "due to incompetent management style" Weatherly could not capitalise on the record high prices that have been paid for copper since the company took over its mines from the partly union-owned Ongopolo Mining and Processing about two and a half years ago.
At its current level, the copper price is still about twice as high as it was when Ongopolo revived the closed-down copper mines of Tsumeb Corporation Limited in March 2000, and at such a price, the company should still be able to operate competitively, Hengari said.
Another option that was available was for Government to step in to avoid the looming job losses by taking over the copper mines, Hengari said.
"The move by Weatherly Namibia to close down the mines is on the other hand a golden opportunity for the government to nationalise and establish sound and economically viable mining operations at all the peoples' mines," he said.
Representatives of the MUN and the Weatherly management had talks this week in connection with the company's closure plan and the layoff of its employees at the mines.
According to Hengari the union's first focus has been to attempt to save the jobs, before termination packages were to be discussed.
The talks between the union and the company have however deadlocked in the first stage of the discussions, and must now be referred to the Labour Commissioner, he said.
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