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South Africa: 2 mines re-open despite continuation of labor unrest
(Reuters) – Two South African mines reopened on Monday after labor strife forced them to suspend operations last week, but striking miners vowed to keep operations run by world No. 1 platinum producer Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) shut.
Wage talks were set to resume in a bid to end a 5-week strike at the Marikana mine of platinum producer Lonmin, bringing its production to a halt and pushing up the price of the precious white metal.
The unrest has its roots in a turf war for members between an upstart union and the dominant National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) but it is now unclear who the strikers are taking their direction from.
Police used tear gas and rubber bullets over the weekend as part of an operation to disarm miners, implementing the government’s decision to get tough on strikes that choked off platinum output in the world’s top producer.
Aquarius Platinum’s Kroondal mine and Xstrata’s chrome operation near the platinum belt city of Rustenburg restarted on Monday. Aquarius’ shares in Johannesburg were up more than 12 percent by 0800 EST.
Amplats said work at its Rustenburg mines would resume on Tuesday, a move dismissed by one workers’ representative as a “joke”. The unrest and illegal strikes have spread from Marikana to Rustenburg along the restive platinum belt.
“For us, the reality is that the general strike is on,” Mametlwe Sebei, a self-styled Rustenburg community leader and Marxist politician, told Reuters. “We are going to be demonstrating in defiance. We will not be intimidated.”
