JOHANNESBURG (I-Net Bridge) -- A Monday meeting between National Union of Mineworkers' (NUM's) representatives and the management at the Modikwa mine ended without resolve.
Onis Ferothwane, one of the negotiators representing the NUM, says no agreement was reached in the talks, and that the strike continues.
However, Pieter R"orich, an executive director at African Rainbow Minerals [JSE:ARM], one of the mine's owners, said: "We feel we made a lot of progress. We have given them some good proposals and we are waiting for a response."
Ferothwane says the most contentious issue is labour's call for an end to continuous operations at the mine. R"orich says the mine was designed for continuous operations and therefore it would be impossible to eliminate.
If proposals are not accepted the dispute could end up under independent arbitration or before the courts, although ARM does not expect it to go that far.
R"orich previously said the mills and operations were running at capacity while mining has slowed down due to the strike. Rorich said that while no blasting is taking place, workers are being redeployed to the mining area.
The mine loses an average of R5 million ($681,100) in revenue per day due to the strike even though workers are not being paid. Thus far, the strike has resulted in the loss of 25,000 tonnes of ore worth about R20 million ($2.72 million).
The strike started on Friday after NUM demanded the phasing out of continuous operations and for a 100% transport subsidy of R162 ($22) per month/employee. The union said that the strike was also over racial discrimination.
Basic earnings had already been agreed upon with a 7% hike included in the package.
The mine is a joint venture project between ARM and Anglo Platinum [JSE:AMS], the world's largest platinum producer. ARM has an effective 41.5% interest in the operation, with the surrounding mining communities owning an effective 8.5%. Anglo Platinum owns the other half of the mine.
Modikwa produced 293,313 platinum group metal (PGM) ounces in the year to end-June 2006, at a cash cost of R3,394/oz ($466.55/oz).
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