adminJohannesburg. – The three biggest platinum producers and the main union at their South African operations will consider proposals by the mines minister to end a more than 18-week strike that’s crippled output and shrunk the economy.
Mineral Resources Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi last week brokered talks between Anglo American Platinum Ltd, Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd, Lonmin Plc and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union to try end a strike over pay by more than 70 000 employees that started on January 23.
“The parties generally have taken those recommendations to their constituencies” and are expected to return “within a reasonable period,” Mahlodi Muofhe, a spokesman for the mineral resources department, said by phone yesterday.
The stoppage by workers in the country with the biggest reserves of the metal has cost the producers 20,6 billion rand ($1,9 billion) in revenue in the industry’s longest and costliest strike.
It has cut mining’s contribution to the economy by the most in 47 years in the first quarter, resulting in the first contraction in gross domestic product since a 2009 recession, Statistics South Africa said last week.- Bloomberg.
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