Participants from South Africa’s major gold-mining companies, trade unions and the government recently agreed to cooperate to chart a new course for the gold mining sector, which is in long-term decline, the Chamber of Mines said on Wednesday.
The parties involved in the project are: AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields, the South Deep gold mine, Harmony Gold, the Chamber of Mines, the National Union of Mineworkers, trade union UASA, Solidarity and the Department of Minerals and Energy.
“This agreement follows a year of discussions in which parties explored ways in which they might work differently to address the challenges of the volatile price and exchange rate environment, increasing cost pressures, declining reserves and ongoing job losses,” the chamber said.
“These discussions centred on the realisation that in the past their efforts had resulted in insufficient action — and that as a consequence, certain objectives in terms of growth, equity and employment had not been achieved,” the mining employer body said.
The overall talks were being championed by the chief executive officers of gold mining companies, the presidents and general secretaries of the unions, and the minister of minerals and energy as well as her senior staff.
“They are supported by a project team that is made up of staff from all three stakeholder groupings, and facilitated by the monitor group — global experts in competitiveness strategy — and Gavin Hartford, a seasoned facilitator of multi-party dialogues,” the chamber said. ‒ I-Net Bridge