* Production at Sishen to resume as soon as possible
* Gold Fields give Thursday deadline for strikers to return
* Gold One suspends Ezulwini mine for 30 days
(Recasts with Gold Fields, adds Atlatsa, details)
By Sherilee Lakmidas and Agnieszka Flak
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 16 (Reuters) – An illegal strike at Kumba
Iron Ore’s Sishen mine in South Africa ended on Tuesday
after police arrested 40 miners while other mining firms
threatened mass dismissals to try to halt the unrest.
In a pre-dawn raid, police recovered Kumba’s trucks and
bulldozers seized by the strikers who had blockaded the pit for
almost two weeks.
Since August, more than 80,000 miners have downed tools in
often violent walkouts that are hitting economic growth and
investor confidence, and raising questions about President Jacob
Zuma’s leadership shortly before an internal election in the
ruling African National Congress (ANC).
The strike at Sishen cost Kumba, a unit of Anglo American
and Africa’s largest iron ore producer, 120,000 tonnes
of lost production a day.
“Any damage to equipment is being assessed and the company
has plans in place to restore the mine to full production as
soon as possible,” Kumba said. Its shares rose 2.7 percent.
Continued…
