Leading platinum producer AngloPlatinum will be slashing about 10,000 jobs or 13 per cent of its global workforce.
"AngloPlatinum, the world's largest producer of the metal, is to shed 10,000 jobs as it seeks to cope with tumbling prices and falling demand from car manufacturers," The Times has reported.
Quoting AngloPlatinum's Chief Executive Neville Nicolau, the report published online on Monday said 8,000 jobs would be cut in the first half of the year with around three quarters of the losses hitting contract workers and the rest mine workers.
A further 2,000 mine workers could lose their jobs in the second half of the year, Nicolau was quoted as saying.
The total cuts account for about 13 per cent of the AngloPlatinum's global workforce, the report added.
The move to axe jobs comes after the entity posted a steep fall in operating profit for the full year 2008.