The Glencore-Merafe chrome venture has given the government one week to offer it more competitive electricity tariffs before it pulls the trigger on 2,500 retrenchments and the idling of two smelters in early 2026.
In a statement this week, joint venture partner Merafe said last-minute talks with Eskom to salvage its Wonderkop and Boshoek smelters had ended in vain, demanding a final warning call from the miners.
“In the absence of a viable solution from the South African government by the termination date (December 8), the conditional retrenchment notices and voluntary severance package approvals will automatically take effect and become binding with effect from 9 December 2025,” it said.
Merafe said the venture had already begun issuing formal retrenchment notices and approving severance packages on Monday, which would remain conditional for seven days.
The group said a proposal regarding electricity tariffs had been presented last week after talks with Eskom, but that the proposal would support continued operations only at its Lion smelter. The fate of Wonderkop and Boshoek still hangs in the balance.
The final warning comes after months of discussion with authorities and stakeholders over how to salvage the two smelters from decades of costly electricity tariff hikes.
In February, Switzerland-based Glencore said it was considering suspending at least half of its remaining furnaces, warning that high electricity prices made it more viable to export raw chrome ore than to smelt it into ferrochrome locally.
In the following months, Glencore and Merafe suspended the venture’s smelting operations at Boshoek and Wonderkop after the completion of the business review process, commencing legal processes that it said at the time might lead to job losses.
The venture also temporarily suspended operations at the Lion smelter to allow for scheduled annual maintenance and planned rebuilds.
Eskom’s ballooning electricity prices have forced more than half of South Africa’s 59 chrome furnaces to close in recent years, according to mineral and petroleum resources minister Gwede Mantashe.
In an attempt to salvage the local sector, the government has in recent months proposed placing chrome ore under export control to incentivise beneficiation and crack down on smuggling.
Bloomberg reported late last week that Samancor Chrome, another local chrome heavyweight, may cut as many as 2,496 jobs in South Africa next year as it considers slimming down operations in response to high energy costs, according to labour union Solidarity.
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