About 2,000 gold workers stand to lose their jobs

At least a fifth of the 10,000 employees of Ashanti Goldfields, one of sub-Saharan Africa's largest companies, could lose their jobs in the next few weeks because of depressed world gold prices, a company official was quoted as saying on Monday. AFP reported that the official, who asked not to be named, said a "firm decision" had already been taken and "some of the casual workers have already gone home". AFP quoted the official as saying, "These are permanent lay-offs." The general secretary of the Ghana Mine Workers Union, Robert Cole, said Goldfields' management cited rising production costs as the reason for the lay-offs. However, Ghana joined South Africa at the weekend in protesting the decision by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Britain to sell gold reserves, depressing the world price to a 20-year low, AFP reported. [See separate item titled 'At least 2,000 gold miners to lose jobs']