Production has been suspended at a giant Canadian-owned gold mine in Mauritania after the state ordered expatriates whose work permits had expired to stay home, a company spokesman told reporters on Saturday.
The latest stoppage at Tasiast mine in the country’s north comes a month after workers went on strike over plans by the owner Kinross to slash costs. The strike lasted 18 days.
A spokesman for Tasiast Mauritanie Ltd, a local subsidiary of Kinross, said the decision to suspend production was taken after Mauritanian Ministry of Labor on Friday “ordered all expatriates at Tasiast mine who, according to the ministry, do not have valid work permits, to stop working.”
The company “disagreed with the decision,” but had decided to temporarily halt output to ensure the workers’ safety, he added.
The spokesman, Raphael Sourt, did not say how many workers were affected by the Mauritanian government order.
Mine representatives were working with the Mauritanian government “to try to resolve the problem as quickly as possible in order to be able to resume normal operations,” he added.
The Mauritanian government, for its part, said it had intervened after a “routine” inspection of the mine to ensure workers had the necessary permits and that their rights were being upheld.
The stoppage comes a week after the workers ended an 18-day strike after the company agreed to begin talks on a collective pay agreement.
Nearly all the mine’s 1,041 permanent staff had taken part in the stoppage.
The mine, which produced 219,045 of gold equivalent ounces (6.2 tonnes) last year according to the company’s Web site, was once the world’s third-largest, but production has suffered from the falling price of gold.
Strikes have previously hit the mine in 2013 and 2011, also over pay and conditions.
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV on Friday announced an investment of NT$13.5 billion (US$414.62 million) over the next five years in Taiwan. The first multinational brewing company to operate in Taiwan, Heineken made the statement at a ceremony held at its brewery in Pingtung County. It also outlined its efforts to make the brewery “net zero” by 2030. Heineken has been in the Taiwanese market for 20 years, Heineken Taiwan managing director Jeff Wu (吳建甫) said. With strong support from local consumers, the Dutch brewery decided to transition from sales to manufacturing in the country, Wu said. Heineken assumed majority ownership and management rights
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI