Platinum miner Lonmin has signed an innovative wage deal with a number of South African unions, offering a five-year deal to boost wages and provide bonuses based on savings and productivity.

The New Labour Era Agreement will take effect from October 1st and will cover all 25,000 employees at the Marikana operations in South Africa.

Solidarity, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and United Association of South Africa are all included in the agreement, which will see basic pay increase each year by the South African CPIX inflation.

Lonmin's CEO, Brad Mills, commented: "For the first time labour and management are working together to build a healthy business and have both given up their adversarial past."

Workers will share from an annual bonus pool and historical differences that previously existed between the three Lonmin mines will be removed.

Lonmin is now the third largest platinum producer in the world and its wage changes follow a current focus in the industry on improving pay and conditions. Implats and the Chamber of Mines and South Africa's three major gold producers are also involved in wage talks.

"This definitely marks a new chapter for labour relations in South Africa and could provide the blueprint for other mining companies currently involved in negotiations," Gerhard Viljoen, Solidarity's coordinator for Lonmin, added.