Platinum Strike Update, Government mediation ending

Mining minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi has been the one who has set up the many meetings of the ACMU and the Platinum mining companies for talks about the strike. Many deal have been offered but no solution has been reached. One last meeting slated for today 6/9/2014 is set to happen. Ngoako Ramatlhodi has stated that if the two parties cannot reach a resolution at this last effort meeting, that the government will pull out of mediation. The strike will then move back into Labor Court for further arbitration. The problem with the court system is that because it is dealing with global companies it really has no way of enforcing any court order if a verdict is reached. The other major problem is if it reaches labor arbitration there is no time table for a resolution so it may drag on for much longer.

Ngoako Ramatlhodi has also recently stated that when the strike is concluded he will be making sure companies are complying with the mineral act and ownership transformation targets. The mining companies could lose their licenses to mine if they are not giving enough of their profits back to the people of south Africa.

So far the stockpiles accumulated by both the mining companies as well as thier various buyers have held out and prevented a increase in the price of platinum, but if a solution cannot be reached between them, and 40+% of the worlds platinum production continues to be shut down, platinum could see a long overdue reaction to this situation.