BLBG:AngloGold Mines Halted in South Africa as Strikes Spread
AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (ANG), the world’s third-largest gold producer, halted production at all of its South African mines as labor unrest that left at least 46 dead in the past two months spread.
Workers at the West Wits and the balance of the Vaal River Region’s operation last night joined colleagues already on strike since Sept. 10 at Kopanang, the Johannesburg-based company said today in a statement. The strike is peaceful so far and no demands have been received, spokesman Alan Fine said by mobile phone today.
A six-week strike at Lonmin Plc (LMI)’s Marikana mine northwest of Johannesburg claimed 46 lives and ended last week as miners secured pay increases of as much as 22 percent, more than quadruple the country’s August inflation rate. Strikes spread to Anglo American Platinum Ltd. (AMS), Gold Fields Ltd., Coal of Africa Ltd. (CZA) and the transport industry.
“Workers are now demanding wage increases according to the ‘Lonmin settlement’,” David Davis, a gold analyst at Johannesburg-based SBG Securities Ltd., said in a note. “Unprotected strike action may well spread from other mines to Harmony’s mines and to other industries.”
South African operations account for 32 percent of total production at AngloGold (AGG), which last year produced 4.33 million ounces of the metal.
The strikes were “obviously coordinated, but as to exactly how it was done, a lot of that is in the realm of speculation,” Fine said.
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AngloGold fell 2.7 percent to 290.62 rand by 9:47 a.m. in Johannesburg. Gold Fields, the world’s fourth-biggest producer, declined for a third day, losing 1.2 percent to 104.16 rand.
An illegal strike at Gold Fields’ KDC West mine that started Sept. 9 spread to the Beatrix mine on Sept. 21, the company said yesterday.
Anglo American Platinum, the world’s largest producer of the metal, said last week it will pursue “legal avenues” if miners at its Rustenburg operations did’t return to work by Sept. 24. Amplats hasn’t dismissed any workers so far, spokeswoman Mpumi Sithole said in a phone interview yesterday.
There are no strikes Harmony Gold Mining Co.’s operations, it said in an e-mailed response to a query today.
To contact the reporters on this story: Elisabeth Behrmann in Sydney at ebehrmann1@bloomberg.net; Carli Cooke in Johannesburg at clourens@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jason Rogers at jrogers73@bloomberg.net
