Close to a 100 miners at the flooded Weatherly International-owned Kombat copper mine are facing retrenchment, the Mineworkers Union of Namibia said this week. The mine was flooded in the third quarter of 2005.

Honas Lumbu, Assistant Secretary General of the union, told the Economist that his organisation and Weatherly were involved in talks to try and relocate the miners into other mines and smelting operations owned by the British company.
He said some workers might be retrenched because it was unlikely that jobs would be found for them within the Weatherly Group. He said there were chances for some miners to be employed by the Berg Aukas mine, which may be opened soon.
Early in the year, the company’s CEO, Rod Webster said Weatherly had suspended dewatering operations at the mine due to a series of power cuts, which were affecting the exercise.
The Kombat mine was previously in production under its previous owners, the Ongopolo Group, until it was flooded in 2005.
Weatherly started the dewatering campaign in the third quarter of 2006 after it bought the former Ongopolo mines.
Speaking separately, Managing Director of Weatherly Mining Namibia, Deon Garbers said operations at Kombat would take two years to resume.
He said 230 employees would be redeployed within the group.