Mining Weekly reported that mineworkers at the BHP Billiton-managed Hotazel manganese mine in South Africa were urged to return to work in compliance with a court order that called the strike illegal and unprotected.

As quoted in the market news:

BHP Billiton said in a media release sent to Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly Online that workers had been away since March 27, following a prolonged engagement with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) over claims arising from an employee share ownership scheme.

Despite a one-off financial settlement to resolve the matter and the launching of a new Esop – which resulted in employees receiving three dividends to date, with the fourth one due this month – NUM still opted to take the matter to the Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, which ruled in the company’s favour.

Click here to read the full Mining Weekly report.