South Africa: Victory for Lonmin Miners? Not So Fast

September 19, 2012 from eNews Channel Africa

While miners celebrated a 22 percent wage increase and the end of their labor dispute at Marikana, Lonmin Platinum Mine announced it is shutting down its K4 shaft in Rustenburg. The closure will leave more than 1,000 miners unemployed. Lonmin says it has had to close the shaft because of a slump in the global platinum price and the crippling weeks-long strike by mineworkers.

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Marikana miners' strike

The Marikana miners' strike or Lonmin strike was a wildcat strike at a mine owned by Lonmin in the Marikana area, close to Rustenburg, South Africa in 2012. The event garnered international attention following a series of violent incidents between the South African Police Serv... Explore this topic

Lonmin

Lonmin plc, formerly the mining division of Lonrho plc, is a producer of platinum group metals operating in the Bushveld Complex of South Africa. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. Its registered office is in London, and its o... Explore this topic

Rustenburg

Rustenburg is a city situated at the foot of the Magaliesberg mountain range in North West Province of South Africa. It was one of the official host cities of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, being in close proximity to Phokeng, capital of the Royal Bafokeng Nation, where the Royal Ba... Explore this topic

Mining industry of South Africa

Mining in South Africa has been the main driving force behind the history and development of Africa's most advanced and richest economy. Large scale and profitable mining started with the discovery of a diamond on the banks of the Orange River in 1867 by Erasmus Jacobs and the... Explore this topic

Strike

Strike action, also called labor strike, on strike, greve, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the Industrial Revolution, when mas... Explore this topic

North West (South African province)

North West is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Mahikeng. The province is located to the west of the major population centre of Gauteng. Explore this topic

Labor dispute

Labor unrest is a term used by employers or those generally in the business community to describe organizing and strike actions undertaken by labor unions, especially where labor disputes become violent or where industrial actions in which members of a workforce obstruct the n... Explore this topic

Unemployment

Unemployment occurs when people are without work and actively seeking work. The unemployment rate is a measure of the prevalence of unemployment and it is calculated as a percentage by dividing the number of unemployed individuals by all individuals currently in the labor forc... Explore this topic

Miner

A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two conceptions as to what this includes. In its narrowest understanding, "miners" are solely those persons who work at the face cutting, blasting, or otherwise working and r... Explore this topic

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth from an orebody, lode, vein, seam, or reef, which forms the mineralized package of economic interest to the miner. Ores recovered by mining include metals, coal and oil shale, gemstones,... Explore this topic

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Marikana miners' strike

Lonmin

Rustenburg

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