Petra Diamonds has dismissed claims by South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) that it plans to lay off 468 employees due to ongoing challenges in the diamond market.
The company clarified that only 84 employees from its Cullinan and Finsch mines in South Africa will be affected, significantly fewer than the number reported by the union.
NUM alleged that Petra intended to replace permanent employees with contract workers to cut costs. However, a company spokesperson told Rapaport News on Monday that some workers had already opted for voluntary separation packages, while others had been placed in alternative roles.
Petra stated that affected employees received severance packages, extended employee assistance programs, financial advisory services, and skills development initiatives to ease the transition.
“Due to the ongoing and prolonged downturn in the global diamond market, the company has had to initiate a redundancy process,” the spokesperson said.
“This difficult decision is necessary to ensure the long-term sustainability of our operations. We have taken every possible step to minimize the impact on employees while securing the company’s future.”
This marks the third round of layoffs at Petra in the past year. Previous staff reductions at Finsch were linked to a decline in ore production from 2.8 million tonnes per year to 2.2 million tonnes.
Other layoffs resulted from broader market constraints. The latest redundancies primarily impact group office and support services teams.
To mitigate financial strain, Petra has implemented cost-cutting measures, including capital reductions, operational efficiency improvements, and non-labor cost reductions.
The company assured that all affected employees would receive priority consideration for re-employment if market conditions improve within the next 12 months and suitable positions become available.
