Future of work is people skills

AUTOMATION may be gutting American manufacturing jobs, but there’s one thing the robots still can’t beat us at: people skills.

It just so happens that the future of American labour will require a lot of jobs that require empathy and critical thinking.

The occupations projected to add the most jobs in the next 10 years, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics, all require people skills – such as home health aides, registered nurses, and retail and service workers.

These are all skills robots are really bad at – for now.

Yet the jobs the president-elect has focused on reviving – mostly in manufacturing, dominated by men – are the ones most vulnerable to being replaced by robots, not the ones that are in highest demand or expected to grow the fastest. – Bloomberg SIBANYE Gold Limited said yesterday it had agreed to acquire all of the outstanding stock of Stillwater Mining Company, the US’s only miner of platinum group metals (PGM), for a total of $2.2 billion in cash (about R30bn).

South Africa’s largest individual producer of gold said the price, $18 per share in cash, represented a premium of 23 percent to Stillwater’s prior day closing share price, and 20 percent to the 20-day volume-weighted, average closing price.

New York-listed Stillwater is the largest primary producer of PGM outside of South Africa and the Russian Federation, with two underground PGM mines in Montana.

The mines are located in the J-M Reef, the world’s highest-grade PGM deposit, and both have their own milling and concentrator infrastructure on site.

Stillwater’s net asset value was $916 million as of September 30, and profit for the nine months to the end of September was $4m.

Sibanye said in a statement that the transaction represented a “unique, transformational opportunity… to create a premier global precious metals miner with a balanced portfolio of gold and platinum group metals assets, at a favourable point in the commodity cycle”.

The transaction would enhance Sibanye’s asset base by adding two “low-cost, low-risk, steady-state producing PGM mines” and expand its port- folio with high-grade reserves that currently supported more than 25 years of mine life, it said.

The deal would also provide significant upside and organic growth potential through extensive regional resources.

Furthermore, Sibanye said, the deal would balance its portfolio operationally and geographically, enhance cash-flow generation and improve access to lower-cost global financing.

Neal Froneman, Sibanye’s chief executive, said the transaction was consistent with the company’s strategy of creating superior value by enhancing the cash-flow generation and growth profile of its portfolio, “underpinning its strategy of paying sustainable, industry-leading dividends”.

“We have been most impressed with the workforce at Stillwater, and look forward to the opportunity of working with them,” Froneman said.

Mick McMullen, Stillwater’s chief executive, said the deal gave shareholders the opportunity to realise immediate value while positioning the company’s operations and employees as part of a pre-eminent global precious metals company. – ANA