After years of deadlock, employees of Kraomita Malagasy (KRAOMA) are receiving their back pay. Last week, the company began disbursing the first installment covering six months of wages.

Is Kraomita Malagasy finally turning the corner? Last week, company management paid six months of salary to its employees. They had received nothing since 2019, when KRAOMA S.A. was weakened by governance problems.

Interim General Director Keron Idealson opened dialogue with staff. "If I'm here, it's to provide solutions as a leader, not as a director general who inspires fear. We're here to find ways to restore this company," he said at the end of the week in Brieville during his first meeting with personnel.

According to management, all employees received six months of salary, including retirees. Amounts owed to deceased employees were paid to their beneficiaries. The company settled these arrears after the Anti-Corruption Unit and Justice Ministry transferred 20 billion ariary to KRAOMA's accounts following a court decision. "These five million US dollars were deposited in our treasury. This sum allowed us to immediately pay six months of salary to employees," explains Keron Idealson.

Reforms

Employees, once discouraged, say they have regained hope. "We were disheartened, but we're delighted to have received six months of salary," one employee said. Part of this sum will also be used to restart KRAOMA's activities in Brieville.

Management announced plans to implement reforms at KRAOMA. This decision may mark a turning point for the company, which has struggled since 2019 and has not exported chromite since then.

Since 2018, the company's status has continuously evolved. Russian investors were brought in alongside the state. After Russian company Ferrum Mining's departure, the Malagasy public enterprise responsible for chromite exploitation must face its debts and chromite prices too low to generate profits. KRAOMA was abandoned with debts reaching 9.6 million euros according to 2018 financial statements.

According to Jeune Afrique, the company also faced 5 million euros in arrears to Austrian-based multinational Stork. Facing low prices, the mine eventually collapsed under its own weight. In 2019, only 15,000 tonnes of chromite were exported when the tonne traded at 120 dollars in China. Management at the time explained that "production and transport costs from the deposit to Toamasina port already approached this amount," reports Jeune Afrique.

Since beginning extraction operations in 1968, KRAOMA has produced and exported primarily high-quality chromite. The concentrated chromite it produces trades between 285 and 320 dollars per tonne for standard grades. Superior quality ores can reach 350 to 370 dollars per tonne. This revival in the international market could benefit KRAOMA in coming years, provided extraction activities resume and the company's governance improves.