AMCU has since demanded a pay rise of 12,000 rand ($1,500; £930) per month.
This appears to be considerable rise until....
On Friday, August 10, 2012, Lonmin platinum miners walked off the job demanding a 300% wage increase and recognition of grievances,
Given these two sets of figures miners are currently earning 4,000 rand (£310) per month. Meaning the increase demanded by the miners, bringing their wages to just 500 rand (£38) above the national SA average of 14,000 rand (£1,070) per month, was more than fair.
Or as the Telegraph puts it:
Platinum is found in everything from a car’s catalytic converter to jewellery. But getting the stuff deep out of the ground is a nasty business, with the platinum mining causing most of Anglo’s worker fatalities – down from 45 in 2007 to 16 last year.
No-one takes bigger risks than the rock drillers, working at the rock face with a 25kg drill for shifts lasting eight hours. It was 3,000 of them, represented by Amcu, that downed tools on August 10, demanding their wages be tripled from the current Rand 4,000 (£305) a month. Clashes between the rival unions erupted, with many of the 10 early victims, including two policeman, hacked to death.
As Jon Bergtheil, a mining analyst at Citi, points out: “Unlike with gold mines, where workers live on site and can be controlled by security, a lot of platinum miners are bussed to the mine. Their living conditions are poor. There’s an interplay between social griping and griping about work. It’s a potent mix and can be engineered for political purposes.”
It pitches the ruling African National Congress and its allies in the National Union of Mineworkers against an increasingly restive, impoverished electorate, whipped up in this instance by a far more militant and recruit-hungry union, Amcu – the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union.
As the Sowetan put it: “Africans are pitted against each other... fighting for a bigger slice of the mineral wealth of the country.”
Alison Turner, an analyst at Panmure Gordon, said the killings made any “speedy” end to the conflict “increasingly difficult”.
That is a big concern for cash-strapped Lonmin, which warned on Thursday that the first six days of the strike meant it was already “unlikely” to meet its full-year target of “750,000 saleable ounces of platinum”.
The FTSE 250 miner saw its shares tumble by as much as 8.6pc to 592.5p on Friday morning, the lowest intraday level since December 2008.
Yesterday, Lonmin said that had lost six days of mined production due to the disruption, which represents "300,000 tonnes of ore, or 15,000 platinum equivalent ounces".
As a result, the miner warned it is unlikely that it will meet its full-year guidance of 750,000 saleable ounces of platinum.
The shares have fallen more than 22pc since the strike began last Thursday..... a nine year low in Johannesburg, plunging by more than 10pc to 75 rand.
Nathi Mthethwa, South Africa's police minister, defended the actions taken by police officers on Thursday.
"Currently there are 35 dead, but some were also some injured, so it might be more later today," he said in a radio interview on Friday morning.
The shares recovered slightly in late morning trade, and were down 2pc at 635.04p.
