South African Coal Mining suspended mining operations at its Umlabu Colliery and placed the mine on a care-and-maintenance programme, it said yesterday. This was because reserves at the Mooifontein section of the colliery currently being mined would be depleted by the end of December. The company had planned to access the Voorslag reserve, but approval of the water-use licence application for the area had not been received and therefore mining operations could not start. It added that the global market prices of seaborne thermal coal had plummeted and the company had been recording significant losses. It said as its cost of production was in excess of the current market prices, it could not sustain the operations and continued to incur such losses. The National Union of Mineworkers was informed yesterday that Umlabu was considering retrenching 64 employees. – Staff reporter