PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Gold One has sacked more than half of its employees at its Modder East operations, in South Africa, following an illegal strike last week.

The miner said that it had dismissed 1 035 of its 1 800 employees at the mine.

ASX- and JSE-listed Gold One had been in talks with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Monday, to normalise its Modder East operations, following representations on June 8 against the dismissal of employees participating in the strike action.

The strike action began on June 3 and was interdicted by the Labour Court on June 4.

Gold One said in a statement that management had considered the representations made against the dismissals, and had concluded that in almost all cases, there were insufficient mitigating factors against the sanction of dismissal.

“Contingencies remain in place to ensure that the operation remains profitable during this time,” the company said.

Limited mining and milling operations were continuing and surface stockpile sources were being processed.

Workers are demanding higher wages, despite the company having agreed a three-year wage deal with NUM earlier this year. The Professional Transport and Allied Workers Union called the strike.

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