Anglo American To Cut 6,000 Jobs As Profits Fall

Anglo American (LSE: AAL.L - news) has announced it will cut 6,000 jobs as it reported heavy losses on the back of plunging commodity prices.

The FTSE-100 listed company, the largest platinum miner in the world, says it will make savings totalling $500m (£323m) by shedding "overhead and other indirect roles".

It reported a 36% fall in underlying earnings, which translated to a $1.9bn loss before tax, in the first half of 2015.

It recorded a write-down of $3.5bn due to the weak commodity prices.

Falling prices were seen across most of its products, with the realised price of iron ore down 41%, platinum down 19%, copper 18% and coal down 15%.

This was partially mitigated by favourable exchange rates, with both the South African rand and Australian dollar weakening substantially against the US dollar.

Over the last 12 months the South African rand is 19% weaker against the US dollar, whilst the Aussie dollar is 23% weaker.

Anglo American boss Mark Cutifani said the global commodity price rout showed few signs of abating.

"I expect the current period of volatile markets and economic uncertainty, fuelled in part by pockets of geopolitical tension, to continue," he said.

Anglo American shares are 0.7% higher after the firm maintained its dividend, lifting the stocks off the 13-year lows seen earlier in the week.

Its shares have halved in value over the last year.

The news comes after Sky News City Editor Mark Kleinman revealed that rival platinum miner Lonmin (LSE: LMI.L - news) was making more than 5,000 job cuts in South Africa.