JOHANNESBURG, March 2 (Reuters) – Impala Platinum
said that a crippling illegal strike at its key
Rustenburg operation has now cost it 120,000 ounces in lost
platinum group metals production, which equates to 2.4 billion
rand ($322 million) in lost revenue.
Johan Theron, a senior executive at Implats, also told
Reuters on Friday that the operation was still set to reboot
next week as almost 15,000 mineworkers have been rehired, but it
remained unclear when full production would resume.
“I don’t know how long it will take to get back to steady
state production,” Theron said.
“Our intention is to open all shafts but we will not be
putting people back in all areas. Our focus is to get the
productive areas up and running first and evaluate the restart
of the more marginal areas later,” he said.
Implats’ Rustenburg operation is the world’s largest
platinum mine and the initial output target for this financial
year was around 915,000 ounces.
What started as a dispute over bonuses awarded to only part
of the workforce ended as a battle for union membership between
the National Union of Mineworkers and a smaller rival, the
Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union.
Thee people have died during the strike.
The company originally dismissed 17,200 workers for
participating in the illegal strike which lasted for around six
weeks, and has said it can only now rehire 15,200 because of
lost operational capacity.
Implats is the world’s second largest platinum producer and
accounts for about 25 percent of global supply of the precious
metal. The Rustenburg stoppage is a key reason behind a spike of
more than 20 percent in the platinum price in the year to
date.
($1 = 7.4609 South African rand)
(Reporting By Sherilee Lakmidas, editing by Ed Stoddard and
Anthony Barker)
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