Johannesburg - Platinum producer Lonmin [JSE:LON] said on Wednesday it was confident it could reach a recognition agreement with the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) and avert a strike.
Amcu wants to be recognised as the majority union at Lonmin as it now represents over 70% of the workforce at the world's third-largest producer of the precious metal. The union has threatened to issue strike notice as early as Wednesday if talks fail.
The company and the union have been in talks for the past two days but have so far failed to reach an agreement.
Lonmin spokesperson Sue Vey said the dispute would go for arbitration on June 26.
"There is no agreement at the moment and we are therefore continuing with the route of arbitration," Vey said. "We are however confident that an agreement can be reached through continued negotiations."
Amcu said on Tuesday it would serve Lonmin with a notice to strike today if there was no agreement.
Jeffrey Mphahlehle, the union's general secretary, told Reuters a decision on whether to serve the strike notice will be made later on Wednesday.
Lonmin's mines were shut for weeks by an illegal strike in 2012 and were the centre of widespread violence in the platinum belt. Police shot dead 34 miners at Lonmin's Marikana mine in the worst security incident since the end of apartheid.
Amcu, which has emerged as the dominant union in the platinum shafts after a bloody turf war with the once unrivalled National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), has also led two brief wildcat strikes at Lonmin this year, most recently last month.
Lonmin said last week it had increased security at its mines, which are only found in South Africa, in response to violence and labour strife.
Workers from both unions are still being killed. Last week a NUM shop steward was shot dead at a Lonmin mine, weeks after an Amcu organiser was murdered in a tavern.