A five day-long strike by about 2 000 workers at the Modikwa platinum mine is costing R5-million a day with between 5 000 and 6 000 tonnes of ore lost each day, African Rainbow Minerals’ (ARM’s) spokesperson said on Thursday.
Pieter Rorich said both the management and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) were still locked in negotiations over some of the issues raised by the union.
“The management and the union are currently in the meeting as we speak,” Rorich said.
Rorich said that there was no further update on the strike except that the mining was slow and no blasting had taken place since the strike began on Friday.
It is still unclear what the strike is about — with both the union and the ARM giving conflicting statements. Rorich said the strike was related to wages, while NUM claims that the strike is more about discrimination arising from white workers being paid more than black workers.
Patrice Motsepe-led African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) and AngloPlatinum (AMS) jointly own the Limpopo-based Modikwa Platinum mine. – I-Net Bridge