Miningmx reports that strike action began on Friday at Gold Fields Limited’s (GF’s) South Deep mine following an earlier decision by the gold producer to retrench staff.  

According to the company, between 150 and 200 members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) thereupon blockaded entrances to the mine.  Gold Fields CEO, Nick Holland said in a statement on Sunday:  “We had no choice but to seek a court injunction as the NUM branch leadership refused to provide us with guarantees that they would respect the rights of non-striking workers.”  GF claimed that NUM members had prevented employees from reporting for work and apparently there were also incidents of property damage at the mine.  The producer said it had advised employees not to report for work for the time being.  “It means that production will be stopped until the situation has normalised and it is safe for our people to return to work,” said GF, with only limited essential services teams working at the mine.  GF announced on 14 August that it would be cutting 1,560 permanent and contractor jobs in an effort to bring the mine into profitability.  South Deep currently employs 3,614 full-time employees and 1,940 contractors.  The company warned that the strike action could imperil further jobs and materially decrease South Deep’s chances of improving its financial performance.  It said it feared the NUM was waging a war of disinformation.

• Read this report by David McKay in full at Miningmx
• See too, Striking workers block access to Gold Fields mine, at Moneyweb

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