Johannesburg - Canada’s First Quantum Minerals said on
Wednesday that a strike at its flagship Zambian copper mine is illegal.
Workers at the Kansanshi mine, Zambia’s largest copper mine
which produced 231 000 tonnes of the red metal in 2010, downed tools on Tuesday
demanding 100% pay rises and bringing production to a halt.
“There was no deadlock reached and as far as we are
concerned this strike is illegal,” company spokesperson Godfery Msiska told
Reuters.
“There is nothing happening even today because the workers
have blocked off the gate to the mine plant and everything is at a standstill.”
Msiska said union officials should convince the workers to go back to work so that negotiations, which had been suspended because of the strike, could resume.