{"id":1194,"date":"2020-02-26T20:47:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T20:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.highveldchronicle.co.za\/wp64\/?p=1194"},"modified":"2020-07-07T20:55:56","modified_gmt":"2020-07-07T20:55:56","slug":"former-employees-buy-exxaro-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.highveldchronicle.co.za\/wp64\/former-employees-buy-exxaro-mine\/","title":{"rendered":"Former employees buy Exxaro mine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>MIDDELBURG <\/strong>&#8211; A group of eight former employees is reportedly to have acquired 50 percent ownership of the Exarro-owned Arnot mine in Middelburg through newly formed Arnot Opco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to chairperson of Arnot Opco, Mxolisi Hoboi, this comes after the employees combined their pension money and bought the mine which closed its operations in 2015 after its coal supply contract with the power utility, Eskom, came to end and left thousands of employees retrenched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe wrote to Exxaro, Eskom and DMR as interested parties informing them of our intentions to buy half of the the mine and restart operations of the mine,\u201d Hoboi told the <em>Highveld Chronicle <\/em>on Tuesday. \u201cThis was done in the interest of saving jobs of the affected employees and bringing back the local economy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hoboi added that they had to bring in a partner with mining experience as one of the requirements by the Department of Mineral and Resources (DMR) to conclude the deal.&nbsp; \u201cThat is when we got Wescoal after interviewing various mining companies,\u201d he added. \u201cWe also brought in the rest of the retrenched employees as part of ownership,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A trust, Arnot Holdings, is formed to administer the profit shares of the beneficiaries with 25 percent of the shares to be distributed to the eight employees while the other 25 percent to the retrenched 1000 employees. Wescoal is said to have a 50 percent ownership. Hoboi also stated that Arnot Copco is currently in talks with Eskom to secure a coal supply agreement. \u201cAfter that we can report that we are ready to restart operations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nonkosi Dlulane, speaking on behalf of the retrenched employees, said she was very excited about the initiative. \u201cThis will open job opportunities for the former mine employees who now don\u2019t have work,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat is also progressive is that although the employees will be re-employed, they will also be part of ownership of the company,\u201d she indicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The mine will not only benefit the former employees but will also create new job opportunities for the community of Emalahleni. \u201cI am confident that the Arnot Mine will be soon functioning. Arnot mine can potentially deliver coal to the Arnot Power Station by conveyer belt, resulting in a significant cost competitive advantage. The rate of unemployment of Emalahleni will be decreased,\u201d said Arnot Opco CEO, Bontle Aphane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mxolisi Mgojo, CEO for Exxaro said that Exxaro has completed the most important step towards transformative employee empowerment. \u201cExxaro strives for power to better lives in Africa and beyond and this partnership is a testament to how we live our purpose. We look forward to success and contribution that Arnot Opco will make to the industry and the community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MIDDELBURG &#8211; A group of eight former employees is reportedly to have acquired 50 percent ownership of the Exarro-owned Arnot mine in Middelburg through newly formed Arnot Opco. According to chairperson of Arnot Opco, Mxolisi Hoboi, this comes after the employees combined their pension money and bought the mine which closed its operations in 2015&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tie-news-style"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Former employees buy Exxaro mine - Highveld Chronicle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dev.highveldchronicle.co.za\/wp64\/former-employees-buy-exxaro-mine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former employees buy Exxaro mine - Highveld Chronicle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"MIDDELBURG &#8211; A group of eight former employees is reportedly to have acquired 50 percent ownership of the Exarro-owned Arnot mine in Middelburg through newly formed Arnot Opco. According to chairperson of Arnot Opco, Mxolisi Hoboi, this comes after the employees combined their pension money and bought the mine which closed its operations in 2015...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dev.highveldchronicle.co.za\/wp64\/former-employees-buy-exxaro-mine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Highveld Chronicle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-02-26T20:47:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-07-07T20:55:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dev.highveldchronicle.co.za\/wp64\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Image.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"853\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lucas Shongwe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lucas Shongwe\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.highveldchronicle.co.za\/wp64\/former-employees-buy-exxaro-mine\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.highveldchronicle.co.za\/wp64\/former-employees-buy-exxaro-mine\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lucas Shongwe\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.highveldchronicle.co.za\/wp64\/#\/schema\/person\/a75cc1a01a15975d7502186c60cb42fd\"},\"headline\":\"Former employees buy Exxaro mine\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-02-26T20:47:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-07-07T20:55:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.highveldchronicle.co.za\/wp64\/former-employees-buy-exxaro-mine\/\"},\"wordCount\":455,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.highveldchronicle.co.za\/wp64\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.highveldchronicle.co.za\/wp64\/former-employees-buy-exxaro-mine\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/dev.highveldchronicle.co.za\/wp64\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Image.jpeg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/dev.highveldchronicle.co.za\/wp64\/former-employees-buy-exxaro-mine\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.highveldchronicle.co.za\/wp64\/former-employees-buy-exxaro-mine\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dev.highveldchronicle.co.za\/wp64\/former-employees-buy-exxaro-mine\/\",\"name\":\"Former employees buy Exxaro mine - 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