Neal Froneman and his Sibanye Gold team have done well to devise a turnaround at the lossmaking Cooke 4 gold mine shaft, on Gauteng’s West Rand, and keep 213 more mineworkers employed than was originally expected by adding an additional 22 working shifts, which will bring in R50-million more in profit. It was also agreed that operations would continue over four of the statutory public holidays. There has been no forced retrenchment. The 392, or 16%, leaving are doing so of their own accord and risk has been taken out of the remaining 1 776 positions, with a moratorium placed on 2015 wage-linked strike action. Less salutary was the February 5 union rivalry at Sibanye’s Beatrix gold mine, in the Free State, which resulted in injuries to nine employees.