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Johannesburg - Impala Platinum Holdings [JSE:IMP] workers at
the company's Rustenburg mine have returned to work, the company said on
Thursday, after a two-day stoppage that cost it at least 6 000 ounces in lost
output.
“Yes, we are back at work,” chief executive David Brown told
Reuters. The operation had been hit by renewed strife stemming from a battle
between rival unions.
But the situation remains tense, with one of the unions
planning to march to a courthouse on Friday, where two of its supporters faces
charges of attempted murder.
“The march is planned tomorrow and we are preparing for
that,” a police spokesperson told Reuters.
The battle between South Africa’s dominant National Union of
Mineworkers (Num) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union
(AMCU) led to a six-week shut down of Implats’ Rustenburg operation earlier
this year.
The operation is the world’s largest platinum mine and the
stoppage took 120,000 ounces out of global output.
The latest round was sparked when police say suspected AMCU
supporters allegedly shot and wounded a Num member last week. Their arrest on
Monday prompted protests, which saw most of the mine’s workforce failing to
report for duty on Tuesday.
Implats has said AMCU wanted recognition from the company and now claimed to have 10 000 members, or about a third of the 30 000-strong labour force, if processing workers are counted.
