 South Africa's Chamber of Mines (CoM) was "disappointed" with the strike that curbed mining production in the country on Wednesday, saying that the action was "counterproductive", senior executive Frans Barker told Mining Weekly Online.
He said that the strike, which saw the JSE's gold mining index losing 5,26% on the day, was disappointing, as the chamber had worked closely with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) to prevent job losses, and had been succesful in securing additional power for those mines that were the worst affected in this regard.
Africa’s biggest gold producer, AngloGold Ashanti said on Wednesday that it had an absentee rate of more than 65% at its four Vaal River area mines, after a labour union federation strike over rising power prices and job losses related to the power crisis, while rival Gold Fields said it could lose up to 95 kg of gold.
AngloGold Ashanti spokesperson Joanne Jones said that at the company’s West Wits mines, there had been “reasonably full attendance”, close to 100%.
AngloGold’s biggest mines are in the West Wits area, including Tau Tona, Mponeng and Savuka.
Jones could not say how much production had been lost owing to the strike action.
Gold Fields spokesperson Daniel Thole said that some 90% of staff at its Kloof mine were absent on Wednesday, but that the night shift, starting at 20:00, should have normal attendance.
Kloof's average daily gold production is 95 kg, which is up to how much production the company could lose on Wednesday. The producing areas at Gold Fields' South Deep mine had near-normal attendance, Thole said.
Smaller peer, Harmony Gold, estimated that it would lose 31 kg to 32 kg of the yellow metal because of the strike. The company lost 8,2% of value on the JSE, closing at R80 a share. Its operations in the Gauteng and North West provinces had been impacted by the Cosatu strike, spokesperson Amelia Soares said.
DRDGold said that underground operations at its ERPM and Blyvooruitzicht mines were operating as per normal, but that one treatment plant out of its three had a 30% attendance. However, spokesperson James Duncan said that this had a "negligible impact".
Platinum companies also lost on the Johannesburg bourse, with the metal's index sliding by more than 3%.
A spokesperson for platinum giant Impala Platinum said that production at its Rustenburg operations had not been affected. At its Marula mine, there was a 60% attendance rate, but this had a minimal impact on production.
World number-one platinum producer Anglo Platinum also said that there had been a minimal impact at its Rustenburg operations, where 4,4% of workers were absent for the morning shift. At its Twickenham mine, in Limpopo, 72,7% of its workers had stayed away from the morning shift, spokesperson Simon Tebele said. He added that the company was expecting attendance levels to improve with the afternoon shift.
Lonmin, another producer of the white metal, said that the strike had affected "some shafts, but not all". "Three shafts have been affected definitely, and the rest minimally," spokesperson Alex Shorland-Ball noted.
It was too early to assess the impact on production, she said.
Meanwhile, the NUM said that it was "pleased by the turn out and will flex its muscles even more for the August 6 action". Cosatu had threatened a national strike on that day, to follow the provincial actions.
The industrial action formed part Cosatu’s national campaign to protesting over rising food and energy prices.
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