Miningmx writes that Neal Froneman, CEO of Sibanye-Stillwater, might be hoping that a peace pact that the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) signed ahead of the return to work of its members at the firm’s gold mines – where a five-month strike was recently ended – will be carried over (at least in spirit) when his company sits down to wage talks in the platinum group metal (PGM) sector from next month.  

So concerned was Sibanye about the risk of strike action at its platinum mines and other exogenous factors on cash flow that it raised some R3.45bn in order to reduce debt.  But, Chris Griffith, CEO of Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), has a different view of upcoming wage talks.  He recently commented:  “I don’t lose sleep over wage talks.  I lose sleep over lots of things, but not that.  I’ve been in so many of these things and they are always so complex.  Yes, we expect Amcu will be wanting to send us a message that we’re making so much money now … but Amcu is represented mostly at Amandelbult which isn’t in the same position as some of the other mines.  If we had a week-long strike it wouldn’t be a major issue in our lives”.  He also thinks Amcu over-played its hand in the Sibanye gold strike in which the union eventually accepted the offer put before it in November.  Griffith believes the five-month strike could see some existential questioning at Amcu:  “I think they are fighting to understand how to take things forward.  They haven’t had elections so at some point they will have to take that step.”

• Read the full original of David McKay’s article on the above at Miningmx

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