S.Africa platinum mine bosses meet minister over strike

South Africa’s mining minister Wednesday handed the heads of the country’s top platinum producers a revised union wage proposal in a bid to break a crippling four-month strike.

Mining Minster Ngoako Ramatlhodi’s office said the companies “requested time to consider the proposal” put forward by unions and will meet again on Thursday.

Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin — the world’s three largest platinum producers — have been in deadlock with the Association for the Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) union over pay since tens of thousands of mineworkers stopped work on January 23.

The ministry did not reveal any details of the union’s proposal, but local media reported that it includes a 7.5 percent, or 800 rand ($74, 55 euros), annual increase backdated to 2013.

AMCU had been demanding that the minimum monthly basic wage be more than doubled to 12,500 rand by 2017, but the miners say the can’t afford the amount.

Its leader, Joseph Mathunjwa, told SAPA news agency that “the strike cannot be forever”, without giving further details.

The miners say the strike — one of the longest in South Africa’s history — has cost them almost $2 billion in lost revenue, while workers have missed out on almost $840,000 in wages.

The militant union rejected an earlier proposal from the miners that would have pushed the minimum pay package to 12,500 rand by July 2017.

The package also included cash allowances for housing, medical insurance and other benefits.

The government stepped in last week after several rounds of failed mediation talks over the strike, which has crippled production at mines in the Rustenburg platinum mining belt.

Data released at the end of May showed South Africa’s economy contracted for the first time since the global crisis five years ago in the first quarter, raising the spectre of recession in Africa’s most developed economy.