Solid Minerals
Hundreds of miners block roads in South African platinum belt
… as strike breaks
MARIKANA – Hundreds of stick-wielding miners barricaded roads and torched roadside vegetable stalls near Lonmin’s South African platinum mine on Tuesday, in an attempt to block fellow strikers from breaking rank and going back to work.
Lonmin and other producers have appealed directly to striking miners to return to work, skirting the militant AMCU union which has threatened that “something else” could happen if companies continue to address workers directly.
About 1,000 members blocked the main road leading to the mine shafts with rocks and burning tires. They torched fruit and vegetable stalls as they marched near Lonmin’s Marikana mine.
One protester, who declined to give his name, said the march was aimed at keeping striking workers united in their pursuit for higher wages.
“We will go back but we need money first…we don’t want to be split into two, that’s all” an AMCU member outside the Lonmin mine said.
South Africa sent more police to the platinum belt on Tuesday to protect miners who have decided to ditch a 16-week strike that has halted 40 percent of normal global output and dented already sluggish growth in Africa’s most advanced economy.
Thulani Ngubane, police spokesman in the platinum mining town of Rustenburg northwest of Johannesburg, said police had set up park-and-ride facilities around the platinum mines to handle the arrivals.
It is unclear how many workers will be coming back but the three big platinum firms say a majority of the 70,000 strikers they have contacted directly want to end the strike.
“We are prepared for any eventuality,” Ngubane said, although he acknowledged it would be difficult to provide security for the miners in the shanty towns that ring the main mines. Four miners have been killed in the area over the last three days.
Four police armored vehicles were stationed outside Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mine, where police killed 34 striking miners in 2012.
Shop stewards of the striking Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) told Reuters police had also broken up an illegal march by union members at Marikana.
RETURNING TO WORK
AMCU members have been on strike at Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin since January pressing for higher wages, but talks have gone nowhere.
Lonmin has said it expects more miners to start returning to work on Wednesday after it made its wage offer directly to employees, sidestepping AMCU.
Implats said it was using mobile phone text messages to conduct a vote on its offer, which was expected to be concluded later on Tuesday. Amplats also said a majority of its workers wanted to return to work.
“The main reason they are not coming to work is because they are being intimidated,” Amplats spokeswoman Mpumi Sithole said.
The firm had provided bus vouchers to its employees in the Eastern Cape province, where many miners have their homes, to return to Rustenburg and most of them had gone back, she added.
The producers say the strike has so far cost them 17 billion rand ($1.64 billion) in lost revenues and employees have lost nearly 8 billion rand of earnings.
AMCU’s leaders maintain that most of their striking members are not happy with the latest offer of a raise in pay of up to 10 percent.
WAGE DEAL “OUT OF QUESTION”
The companies say that would raise the overall minimum pay package to 12,500 rand ($1,200) a month by July 2017, including cash allowances for things like housing, but AMCU says this is not enough.
“We have remained so far apart. A deal with AMCU at this point in time seems completely out of the question,” Amplats chief executive Chris Griffith told private radio station Talk Radio 702. Griffith added that most Amplats miners wanted to return to work.
AMCU had initially demanded an immediate increase to 12,500 rand in the basic wage, excluding allowances, but softened that in March to staggered increases that would amount to 12,500 rand within three or four years – still a third more than what the companies are offering in basic salaries.
The strike highlights the discontent among black miners who feel they are still not reaping the benefits of the country’s mineral wealth two decades after apartheid ended.
– REUTERS
Business
Nigeria set to boost Naira value and foreign reserve with local gold production, as Tinubu receives gold bar
IN a significant move to strengthen Nigeria’s economy, President Bola Tinubu received a symbolic gold bar on Sunday from the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake.
This gesture marks the commencement of the National Gold Purchase Program (NGPP), aimed at boosting the naira’s value and enhancing the country’s foreign reserves.
Minister Alake expressed gratitude to President Tinubu for his support of reforms in the solid minerals sector.
He highlighted that the NGPP, which involves sourcing gold from artisanal and small-scale miners and refining it to meet the London Bullion Market Association’s Good Delivery Standard, will substantially contribute to Nigeria’s economic stability.
Alake stated “This initiative will significantly increase our foreign reserves and strengthen the naira. The refined gold will be supplied to the Central Bank of Nigeria, marking a crucial step in our economic strategy.”
The presentation also underscored the first commercial transaction under the NGPP, establishing a centralized gold purchasing system that integrates small-scale miners, cooperatives, and production units across the nation.
This program is expected to provide a structured market for gold, fostering economic growth and stability.
He said, “The successful completion of the first commercial transaction clearly demonstrates the National Gold Purchase Program’s effectiveness. It has increased the nation’s foreign reserves assets and shown that using the Nigerian Naira to purchase a liquid asset traded in United States Dollars, such as gold, is a viable strategy. This transaction has also underscored the potential of the National Gold Purchase Program to enhance fiscal and monetary stability.”
Alake added that the initial commercial transaction under the program resulted in a +US$5 million boost in Nigeria’s foreign reserve assets.
The transaction involved refining over 70 kilograms of gold to meet the London Bullion Market quality standard and aggregating locally mined gold, thereby infusing approximately NGN6 billion into the rural economy.
President Tinubu expressed appreciation for the Ministry’s accomplishment in advancing the government’s goal of economic diversification by acknowledging and displaying the symbolic gold bar
The Nigerian Government has threatened to come down heavily on foreigners sponsoring bandictory as a way of sustaining illegal mining activities in parts of the country.
The warning was handed down in Abuja by Minister, Solid Minerals Development, Dr Oladele Alake, while receiving a delegation of the Nigeria-China Chamber of Mines led by its National President, Dr. Olugbenga Ajala.
Details of these were contained in a statement released by Head, Press & PR, Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, Alaba Balogun over the weekend.
The statement cited, Dr Alake, thus, “The government will come down firmly on these unscrupulous foreign operators sponsoring banditry to perpetrate illegal mining: let me use this medium to appeal through you to tell those sponsors to desist or face the full wrath of the law.”
According to Dr Alake, the Ministry is committed to establishing a multi-agency task force that will end the activities of illegal miners and their collaborators.
The Minster made it clear that the FG had given illegal miners a 30-day-ultimatum to legitimise their businesses, quit Nigeria or incur the wrath of the law.
According to him, this will help “to streamline and structure the Small-Scale Artisanal Miners for maximum yield to the Federal Government.”
The delegation paid a courtesy call on the Minsiter at the Ministry’s headquarters in Abuja.
By Edozie Obasi-Eze
Amidst heightening uncertainties in the domestic petroleum products market characterised by scarcity and irregular pricing, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has declared that there’s no intention to review pump prices upwards.
This was contained in an advisory issued by General Manager, Corporate Communications, NMDPRA, Kimchi Apollo.
He stated that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) had imported PMS with current stock levels sufficient for 34 days.
In an attempt to address panic buying and speculations which have seen price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) oscillate between N180-N250 in the Lagos area, Apollo assured that there was enough quantity of the product in the country already.
He said, “Consequently, marketers and the general public are advised to avoid panic buying, diversion of products and hoarding.
“In keeping with the Authority’s responsibilities as outlined in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), the Authority assures the public that it would continue to monitor the supply and distribution of petroleum products nationwide, especially during this holiday season.”
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