UPDATE 3-S.Africa's Implats says no job cuts in Rustenburg revamp

* Zimbabwe expansion on hold over tax

* Marula latest S.Africa platinum asset up for sale

* Rustenburg ops to be "smaller, more concentrated"

* Headline earnings fall 53.5 pct, middle of expected range (Recasts with details on staffing)

By Ed Stoddard

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 26 (Reuters) - South Africa's ImpalaPlatinum (Implats) will revamp its Rustenburg mines toboost productivity, but staffing levels will stay the same atthe centre of often violent labour unrest, its chief executivesaid on Thursday.

Terence Goodlace said at an interim results presentationthat the "smaller, more concentrated" Rustenburg operation aimedto have more miners focused on a smaller area.

"Instead of having fewer people in many shafts, we have morepeople concentrated in fewer shafts," Goodlace said. The plan isfor to have 27,685 miners in the shafts by 2020, slightly morethan the current 26,900.

"Mechanisation opportunities" will be pursued in some shaftsbut a whole-scale roll out replacing men with machines is not anoption because of geological and other constraints, he said.

Any move to cut jobs would almost certainly provokeresistance from the Association of Mineworkers and ConstructionUnion (AMCU), which last year led a five-month strike againstImplats, Lonmin Plc and Anglo American Platinum Ltd.

Goodlace said he had assured AMCU on the issue.

Unveiling a strategic review that sees depressed prices forthe short term, Implats also announced it wanted to sell itsMarula mine in South Africa and would halt expansion of theMimosa mine in Zimbabwe because of an export tax.

ASSET SALE

Marula becomes the latest platinum mine in South Africa tocome on the market. Amplats is also in process of disposing ofplatinum assets.

On Marula, Implats said one advantage of selling it was "therealisation of cash to strengthen the Implats balance sheet."

Implats used up cash during the first half of its financialyear, which began on July 1, ramping up its Rustenburgoperations after the AMCU stoppage.

Goodlace said the company was in a "much more significantcash conservation mode than we would have been" as a result, andno interim dividend was declared, similar to a year ago.

As of Dec. 31, Implats had cash and cash equivalents of 2.7billion rand ($235.5 million), down 37 percent from 4.3 billionrand at the end of June.

Its interim headline earnings fell 53.5 percent to 66 cents,the middle of the range it previously flagged.

Gross refined platinum production for the six months was631,000 ounces, down from 786,000 ounces in same period in 2013.Impala's Rustenburg shafts achieved their target of 250,000ounces after the slow reboot.

The ultimate aim at Rustenburg is to have it churning out850,000 platinum ounces by 2019. (Additional reporting by Peroshni Govender and Zandi Shabalala;Editing by James Macharia and Mark Potter)