Platinum paper surges amid fears Implats dispute may spread

Another death has occurred in a standoff between mineworkers and police as the strike at Impala Platinum's Rustenburg ops turns nasty with fears that it may spread to neighbouring Amplats.

Author: Christy Filen
Posted: Monday , 20 Feb 2012

JOHANNESBURG (MINEWEB) -

Platinum and palladium exchange traded commodities (ETC) are surging on the back of violent strikes at Impala Platinum's Rustenburg operations.

ETF Securities said that platinum ETCs had recorded weekly inflows of US$38m which is the highest level seen since May 2011. Palladium ETCs also recorded inflows of US$17m.

Supply disruptions due to the Impala Platinum (Implats) strike and the fear that the rioting may spread to neighbouring Anglo Platinum (Amplats) are behind the inflows said ETF Securities.

Implats has confirmed the death of a dismissed winch operator during a confrontation with the South African Police Service (SAPS) in the early hours of Monday morning.

"The SAPS confronted a group of around 150 people on their way to the North Hostel in the early hours of this morning. A standoff ensued with two discharged workers and one current employee sustaining injuries; and a discharged winch operator from 7A shaft fatally injured" said the company's press release.

The dispute with workers started in January and centred on a retention bonus given to miners. Approximately 5,000 rock drill operators (RDO), who were not included in the bonus scheme, then embarked on an illegal strike. Implats obtained an interdict against the striking RDOs and subsequently dismissed them. The illegal strikes then spread amongst the entire workforce and Implats was forced to dismiss approximately 17,200 employees in total.

Implats CEO, David Brown, insists that a fully consultative process around the retention payments was held with the NUM but this has been denied by the union.

This has led to allegations of NUM losing credibility with the RDOs which has left the door open for what Implats believes are stirrings by rival union, AMCU (Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union), who are trying to gain a foothold amongst the Implats workforce.

"Instead, we have seen the emergence of a new rival union, the AMCU. This situation has been aggravated by the rejection of the NUM by a large constituency of its membership, specifically the rock drill operators" said Implats.

The miner said approximately 70% of its workforce was represented by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and that it had a threshold and recognition agreement with NUM that in terms of law prevented them from having discussions with the rival union.

NUM spokesperson, Lesiba Seshoka, said the union does not have a credibility crisis and explained that the shop stewards representing the RDOs were miners who had received the allowance therefore the RDOs did not want to be represented by them.

Seshoka also dismissed out of hand the allegations regarding AMCU and called on Implats to pay the retention monies to the rest of the workforce

A spokesperson for AMCU said "We are not really involved in the issue of Implats but are planning to schedule a media briefing".

Insisting that employees should return to work in order to further meaningful discussions, Brown said: "we are not giving anything to people who have embarked on an illegal strike and are ex-employees".

Meanwhile, Implats continues to lose 20,000 ounces of platinum per week and to date has lost 80,000 ounces of platinum in total (worth around US$130 million at current prices). Implats continues with a re-employment process, with 7,762 people, including 919 rock drill operators, being re-hired.