The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) says it has rejected Impala Platinum's (Implats) offer of higher wages.

South Africa's second largest platinum miner had put forward an offer of a 4.5 per cent pay rise for higher job categories and a five per cent increase for lower job categories.

However, NUM says the offer was not enough to close the wage gap and did not sufficiently reflect the profits the group is currently making.

"Impala cannot offer such low wage increases when, on the one hand, the company itself is in a healthy financial state and, on the other hand, the price of platinum is so high," commented NUM's chief negotiator at Implats Frans Baleni.

"We are not negotiating with a marginal shaft producing gold here," he added.

The union says it is standing by its demand for a 15 per cent wage increase throughout the whole company.

It believes this is a reasonable requirement and consistent with the developments within the platinum sector.

Commenting on the rising price of platinum, the union said: "It is strange that companies like Impala are not willing to share these proceeds with the generators of the wealth."

The union would also like to see an agreement reached within the next three weeks on job grading and hopes this will be implemented in three months time.

The parties meet again on July 20th for the next round of talks.