Northam Platinum has revealed that it is losing 1,000 oz in pgm output every day as a result of a strike by its workers in South Africa.

Reports suggest that about 80 per cent of the company's 6,800 employees at the Zondereinde mine downed tools at the beginning of the week over a pay dispute.

Although Northam has offered an eight per cent wage increase on a two-year deal, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is pushing for a rise of 15 per cent.

Zwelitsha Tantsi, the NUM's chief negotiator at Northam, revealed that the industrial action could be prolonged considerably if the firm does not meet its demands.

"There is no turning back now or any time soon. It is going to be months and months of strike action," he said in an interview with Reuters.

The development comes at a time when South Africa is struggling with similar strikes in both the public and private sectors, which have led to above-inflation settlements.

Northam Platinum is the only fully independent, black-owned and controlled integrated pgm producer listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

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S.Africa union sees long Northam Platinum strike (08/09/10)

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