Smokey Hills underground ops restarted

Operations restarted on Monday after the mining contractor, Redpath Mining, completed the appeal process for about 70% of the employees who had been retrenched following unprotected industrial action at the mine last week.

These employees have been re-employed and have recommenced work while the appeal process for the balance of the workforce should be completed by the end of this week.

About 400 employees or about 80% of the contractor's workforce submitted appeals for re-employment by Thursday last week.

Platinum Australia said the crushing plant was operating at full capacity and it anticipated restarting the milling and flotation plant on Wednesday.

The strike action by the contracted employees halted almost all operations at the mine for a week.

An announcement to the Australian Stock Exchange revealed that the majority of Redpath Mining employees had refused to go underground since Monday last week.

The employees were advised by the contractor to return to work or face dismissal for participating in unprotected industrial action.