JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) will on Tuesday hold a march to protest Sibanye Gold’s decision to close its Cooke 4 shaft.
Sibanye announced in July that it was engaged in ongoing consultation processes with organised labour and other relevant stakeholders regarding accumulating financial losses at the underground mine and the Ezulwini gold and uranium processing plant.
The talks started in September 2014, when the company attempted to implement specific measures to return the operation to profitability and thereby reduce job losses
“Despite intense monitoring and interventions by a joint management and labour committee over the last 17 months since the previous Section 189 consultation was concluded, the Cooke 4 operations have continued to fall short of production targets and losses have continued to accumulate,” the company said in a statement at the time.
The company then gave notice in terms of Section 189A of the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995, followed by a 60-day period of consultation with labour, facilitated by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.
NUM called on Sibanye to surrender its mining licence to any company willing to mine the Cooke 4 operations.