SA mines restart after safety strike

JOHANNESBURG – South African mines kicked back into life yesterday after 240 000 workers downed tools on Tuesday in the world’s top source of platinum and gold.

Anglo Platinum said it lost a full-day’s output of 9 000 refined platinum ounces during the strike, which underpinned a firmer price for the metal. Cash platinum rose as high as US$1 474 an ounce, its highest level since November 27, on continued supply concerns.”Everything is back to normal at the mines,” said Simon Tebele, a spokesman for Anglo Platinum (Angloplat), the world’s top platinum producer.Analysts said about 900 kg of gold and about 590 kg of platinum could have been lost during the strike, and warned of higher costs and less production in the industry from proposed new safety measures.Angloplat, majority-owned by Anglo American Plc, accounts for 40 per cent of world supplies.The firm said the lost production was already factored into a downward revision of its 2007 output, which it announced last month.Alan Fine, a spokesman for AngloGold Ashanti, the country’s top gold producer and the world’s number-three producer, also said operations were normal at the group.The firm did not mine any gold on Tuesday as most workers stayed away, and those that turned up were trained on safety.Officials said operations at second-ranked platinum producer Impala Platinum, Gold Fields, Harmony Gold and BHP Billiton, the country’s biggest exporter of coal were also back to normal, but most were still counting their output losses.The country’s biggest miners’ union called the one-day strike to force companies to improve safety at mines, and to urge the government to prosecute negligent mine managers.So far around 200 miners have been killed in rock-falls, explosions and buried underground during earth tremors, making the nation’s mines some of the most dangerous.Thabo Gazi, head of the government’s mine safety watchdog in the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) said on Tuesday he backed the strike, and that his unit was working with the justice department on how to conduct future prosecutions.Nampa-ReutersCash platinum rose as high as US$1 474 an ounce, its highest level since November 27, on continued supply concerns.”Everything is back to normal at the mines,” said Simon Tebele, a spokesman for Anglo Platinum (Angloplat), the world’s top platinum producer.Analysts said about 900 kg of gold and about 590 kg of platinum could have been lost during the strike, and warned of higher costs and less production in the industry from proposed new safety measures.Angloplat, majority-owned by Anglo American Plc, accounts for 40 per cent of world supplies.The firm said the lost production was already factored into a downward revision of its 2007 output, which it announced last month.Alan Fine, a spokesman for AngloGold Ashanti, the country’s top gold producer and the world’s number-three producer, also said operations were normal at the group.The firm did not mine any gold on Tuesday as most workers stayed away, and those that turned up were trained on safety.Officials said operations at second-ranked platinum producer Impala Platinum, Gold Fields, Harmony Gold and BHP Billiton, the country’s biggest exporter of coal were also back to normal, but most were still counting their output losses.The country’s biggest miners’ union called the one-day strike to force companies to improve safety at mines, and to urge the government to prosecute negligent mine managers.So far around 200 miners have been killed in rock-falls, explosions and buried underground during earth tremors, making the nation’s mines some of the most dangerous.Thabo Gazi, head of the government’s mine safety watchdog in the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) said on Tuesday he backed the strike, and that his unit was working with the justice department on how to conduct future prosecutions.Nampa-Reuters