adminJOHANNESBURG — The largest platinum producers said a more than eight-week strike by members of the biggest union at their South African operations started causing irreversible damage to the mines, with sales losses exceeding $925 million. There is still no dialogue over the impasse with the Association of Mining and Construction Union, which has led more than 70,000 employees on strike since January 23, Anglo American Platinum Ltd, Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd and Lonmin Plc said in a joint statement yesterday. Workers have lost more than R4.4 billion ($406 million) in wages, they said.
The financial cost of the strike didn’t “tell the full story,” the producers said. “Mines and shafts are becoming unviable; people are hungry; children are not going to school; businesses are closing and crime in the platinum belt is increasing.”
The AMCU is demanding basic wages to be more than doubled within three years to R12,500 a month, compared with current minimum pay of R5,000 to R6,000. Employers have offered pay increases of as much as 9 percent, compared with South Africa’s inflation rate of 5.9 percent in February.
The country accounts for more than two-thirds of the world’s mined platinum, used for jewelry and catalytic converters in vehicles.
Impala, the second-largest producer, is currently re-inspecting its mines to assess rock faces, possible copper theft and underground gas levels, Johan Theron, a spokesman for the Johannesburg-based company, said yesterday.
The company’s Rustenburg Lease mines, which accounted for 58 percent of its mined output for the six months ended December 31, have about 600 underground rock-face panels, each measuring approximately 400 metres, Theron said.
About 16 percent of rock faces were no longer safe to mine due to deterioration, Chief Executive Office Terence Goodlace said on February 27.
“One can expect this to become more so as time goes on,” Theron said.
The cost of repairing some damaged rock faces won’t be viable and they may be closed indefinitely, raising the risk of job losses, Theron said — Bloomberg
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