[miningmx.com] — SEVERAL junior platinum miners are caught in the crossfire of the labour dispute between mining contractor JIC Mining and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), with operations significantly interrupted since Monday.
The mining groups most affected by the dispute over wages are Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat), Eastern Platinum and Platinum Australia.
JIC Mining CEO Jacques Roux said on Friday negotiations with NUM were ongoing and held “in good faith’. He said he was optimistic that an agreement would be reached in time for striking employees to resume work on Sunday’s night shift.
Roux refused to divulge what NUM’s demands and the company’s offer were, but said reports stating that the union was asking for 20% as opposed to JIC’s offer of 13% were untrue.
“It’s a complicated process but we’re making progress,’ he said. “We’ve never been near a deadlock.’
A Num spokesperson wasn’t immediately available to comment.
Although JIC also does some work for majors like Impala and Anglo American Platinum, the work stoppage would be the hardest felt at Eastplats’ Crocodile River Mine and Platinum Australia’s Smokey Hills.
Eastplats said on Thursday production at Crocodile River has halved, which is the equivalent of 210oz of PGM per day. This came after it reported a 29% drop in third-quarter production on Tuesday; mainly the result of a slower-than-expected build-up which followed large scale retrenchments at the mine during the second quarter. Eastplats’ share price has lost around 50% during the year so far, trading at R5.70 on Friday.
Still, it is probably Platinum Australia which could’ve afforded the strike the least. Its ASX-listed shares have lost almost 80% of their value since the start of 2011, mainly due to the non-performance of Smokey Hills. The mine has been hit by various outages this year, caused by both labour unrest, acts of violence close to the mine as well as the temporary suspension of its mining right.
As for RBPlat, the group said the industrial action “will impact on production for the duration of the strike’, without giving further details. It’s share price was up 1.36% at R56.05 on Friday at 16:00.
Implats spokesperson Alice Lourens said the strike had an “insignificant impact’ at the group’s Rustenburg mines.
