[miningmx.com] — GOLD One CEO Neal Froneman has said his Chinese backers were anxious about the state of labour relations in South Africa, explaining the current instability was posing a risk to the company’s own growth ambitions.
The company’s flagship Modder East mine, outside Springs on the East Rand, on Monday saw a violent protest culminating in private security guards firing rubber bullets and police using teargas to disperse a crowd of around 60 people. According to Froneman, four people were injured and had to receive treatment. They were sent home later on.
“The group blocked all access in and out of the mine and threw stones at vehicles that were attempting to gain access to the operations,’ read a statement issued earlier on Monday by Gold One. “The South African Police Service (SAPS) addressed the group extensively, informing them that the gathering was illegal and requesting them to disperse. The group, however, refused to disperse. At approximately 11:30 the SAPS had to use teargas and rubber bullets to disperse the group.’
Access to the mine has since been re-established.
According to Froneman, the protesting group consisted of former Gold One employees who were dismissed during June for participating in an illegal strike, under the banner of the Professional Allied Workers and Transport Union (PTAWU), as well as former Aurora/Pamodzi Gold employees. Gold One in April announced it would acquire the prospecting rights for the area around Aurora’s former Grootvlei mine from the liquidators of Pamodzi Gold’s estate. The company would take almost none of Aurora’s former employees on board as it has no intention of mining the existing assets on the Grootvlei property. Grootvlei and its surrounding areas are adjacent to Modder East.
Modder East is in the process of ramping up to full production following the PTAWU strike in June which led to the dismissal of 1,044 employees. So far, 300 have been re-hired. Gold One has a recognition agreement with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), on the basis that the union represents 50% plus one of the group’s employees, and has a three-year wage agreement in place which expires in December.
Froneman told Miningmx that while most of the protesters were dispersed, police were still keeping a watchful eye. “I’m not so naive as to think they will not be back tomorrow,’ he said.
Gold One was last year taken out by a consortium of Chinese investors and has since spent $330m to acquire new assets. It aims to become a one million ounce South African gold producer, up from just over 100,000oz achieved in 2011.
“We’re one of the few guys committed to growing this gold industry but this situation [labour unrest] is not helping,” said Froneman. “We have no choice but to tell them [the Chinese consortium] exactly what is happening in South Africa at the moment.
“They are very concerned about making future commitments to the country.’
LONMIN
Elsewhere, Lonmin said 4.5% of its employees turned up for work while it was continuing to negotiate a so-called “peace accord’ with unions and worker representatives at the Marikana mine.
“.we are hoping for finalisation today – that being signature of the Peace Accord and consensus on the Process Agreement,’ read a company statement, with the warning that an indefinite strike would threaten the jobs of more than 40,000 workers. “We cannot go on indefinitely without normalising operations and still escape the consequences of the mine not being operational.’
GOLD FIELDS
The halt in operations at Gold Fields’ KDC East mine continued for a sixth day on Monday. The unprotected strike was over an internal dispute between the local branch leadership of the NUM and certain employee groupings, who were demanding the resignation and replacement of local NUM branch office bearers, according to Gold Fields.
Company spokesperson Sven Lunsche said the negotiations between the different factions were on “a positive trajectory’ with the hope that the 12,000 striking employees could return to work within the next few days.
