BusinessLive reports that Sibanye-Stillwater is putting a difficult start to the year behind it as it sees its strike-hit gold operations return to normal production.
The producer reported last week that its first-half gold production fell to 262,904oz because of a five-month wage strike called by the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) towards the end of November 2018. Sibanye sat out the Amcu strike, leaving the union's 14,000 members with virtually nothing to show for five months without a salary. It has taken until August for the Kloof, Driefontein and Beatrix gold mines to return to normalised gold production, about four months after the strike was called off in April. “The build … up of the SA gold division has been slower than we forecast with the 46% quarter-on-quarter increase in production still taking volumes to a level well below our forecast,” noted analyst James Bell. “The planned claw back of production from first quarter 2019 remains on track, with a significant improvement in production and costs forecast for second half 2019,” Sibanye said. The producer heads into wage talks with Amcu for its SA platinum division in coming weeks. It has already said the demands Amcu has publicised, including a demand for basic wages to increase about 46% to R17,000 a month, cannot be met.
- Read the full original of the above report by Allan Seccombe at BusinessLive
- Read too, Sibanye expects further improvements after better second quarter, at Mining Weekly
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