JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Platinum-miner Eastern Platinum (Eastplats) has terminated the contracts of two contract mining companies, JIC and Sindele, working at its Crocodile River mine (CRM), near Brits, in South Africa’s North West province.

This followed a sit-in by about 500 workers at the Zandfontein section of the mine last week, during which a number of supervisors from the contract mining companies were held hostage.

The contracts were terminated with immediate effect, Eastplats CEO Ian Rozier announced in a statement on Monday.

"The direct employee/contractor employee issue in the mining sector in South Africa is a complex one and is a high priority for the mining industry and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) to resolve. However, in light of the legal and safety issues surrounding the events of last week, we have no alternative but to terminate the services of the contract mining companies,” said Rozier.

CRM would now undertake all core mining activities with directly employed mineworkers. It currently directly employed about 1 500 mineworkers and planned to start recruiting more employees.

The labour complement to be directly employed by the mine and the specific skills sets required still had to be determined, a process which was expected to impact on the mine’s production in the short term.

Last week, the mine had lost about two days worth of production from the Zandfontein section, which accounts for about three-quarters of the mine’s total output, as a result of the illegal sit-in.

CRM would reassign crews currently in its direct employment in order to expedite the transition of all core mining activities at the mine to owner mining, stated Eastplats.

This was in line with an agreement signed with the NUM on Saturday. Discussions with the NUM on the matter would continue.

It added that this would enable about 50% of current production to be achieved immediately, mitigating the impact of the transition.

Production at CRM’s processing plant and mining at the mine’s Maroelabult section was unaffected by the incident.

Meanwhile, Eastplats had also laid charges against the individuals who were involved in the “illegal activities”, specifically in relation to safety and health transgressions, as well as taking people hostage, it noted.

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