Sibanye-Stillwater yesterday said it has laid off 11 500 employees from its southern Africa operations in the past one-and-a-half years. This comes as 422 more workers currently employed at the company's Beatrix 1 gold shaft could also be retrenched should the mine fail to turn into profitability. With the Beatrix 4 shaft, Kloof 2 plant, Kloof 4 shaft, Simunye shaft and 4 Belt reaching end of life, in addition to the restructuring of loss-making shafts: the platinum group metals (PGM) shafts at Siphumelele, Rustenburg, and Rowland at Marikana since the beginning of last year, the company's employee numbers have reduced drastically. Together with the right-sizing of Sibanye-Stillwater's regional head office services, the total number of employees and contractors in the southern Africa region had reduced from 81 500 at the end of 2022 to about 70 000 currently. This constitutes a workforce reduction of about 14% for the region.