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South Africa’s main platinum miners’ union will resume government-brokered talks next week with the world’s top three producers, in an effort to end a strike that showed flickers of violence on its second day, officials said yesterday.Union leaders representing as many as 100 000 miners who walked off the job on Thursday sat down with management from the three companies, which produce more than half the world’s platinum, a metal used in catalytic converters in cars.
The three — Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), Impala Platinum and Lonmin — say union demands more than double the miners’ basic pay are “unaffordable and unrealistic”.
Amplats said the strike was costing it 4 000 ounces per day, while Implats was losing about 2 800 ounces daily. Lonmin estimates losses at some 3 100 ounces a day.
The strike and fears of unrest hit the rand, pushing it through the psychologically key 11 to the dollar to levels last seen five years ago. Violence in the platinum sector could trigger a heavier sell-off in the currency.
The companies’ talks with the hardline Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) were held under the auspices of South Africa’s main commercial arbitration body, labour ministry spokesman Mr Musa Zondi said.
“They will sit down on Monday and talk,” he said after several hours of mediation in Johannesburg. Next week’s negotiations are expected to go on for three days.” — Reuters.
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