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Johannesburg - Impala Platinum Holdings [JSE:IMP] 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 R2.4bn in
lost revenue.
Johan Theron, a senior executive at Implats, also told
Reuters on Friday that the operation is still set to reboot next week as
almost 15 000 mineworkers have been rehired, but it remains unclear when full production will 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 now only rehire 15 200 because of lost operational capacity.
Implats is the world's second-largest platinum producer and accounts for about 25% of global supply of the precious metal. The Rustenburg stoppage is a key reason behind a spike of more than 20% in the platinum price in the year to date.
