Strike to Continue at Northam Platinum’s Operations

Reuters reported that Northam Platinum Ltd. (OTCMKTS:NMPNY) was unable to come to an agreement over wages with South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), meaning that a strike that began two weeks ago will continue.

As quoted in the market news:

Northam said it was sticking to its latest offer of wage increases of between 8 and 9 percent compared to a current inflation rate of 6 percent.

NUM has been demanding wage hikes of as high as 43 percent from the world’s fifth-largest platinum producer which has an annual output of about 300,000 ounces. Over 7,000 workers have downed tools at its operations.

Northam is one of the few platinum producers where NUM still represents most of the workers after it lost tens of thousands of members last year to the hardline Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) in a bloody turf war that killed dozens of people and sparked a wave of wildcat strikes.

Click here to read the full Reuters report.