THE South Deep joint venture and the National Union of Mineworkers have signed a long-awaited deal to bring labour peace to one of the country’s biggest gold mines. The agreement, which covers a wide range of operational issues, ends months of wrangling between the union and joint venture partners, Canadian miner Placer Dome and South Africa’s Western Areas. The NUM has agreed to drop its Labour Court action seeking to force the joint venture to re-hire about 2 600 employees retrenched last year. The union also agreed to support continuous operations at the South Deep mine, which will see 190 former employees return to work as of May 1.