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Northam miners back at work after murders halted operations

Johannesburg - Work at the world’s deepest platinum mine resumed on Tuesday night as employees returned to the Northam Platinum mine [JSE:NHM], ending an eight-day stoppage spurred by the murders of two of their colleagues in union rivalry.

Workers returned following a visit by Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane and after the police disclosed the arrest of several suspects in the killings, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

Underground operations at Zondereinde were halted when a National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) member was shot dead in the town of Northam about 20 kilometres from the mine on June 5. A second person, who the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) said is a member of its group, was killed the next day. The company was losing about 1 000 ounces of output daily.

As recently as four years ago, the NUM was the biggest union in South Africa’s mining industry. It has lost ground to Amcu, which became the largest representative of platinum employees and led its members on a five-month strike that crippled the operations of the world’s three biggest producers, all based in South Africa, in 2014.

The mine employs about 7 000 people, 80% of whom are members of the NUM.

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