By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Sibanye-Stillwater reached a one-year wage agreement with workers at its gold operations , the group announced on Monday.
The agreement was reached after negotiations with representative unions the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), the National Union of Mineworkers (Num), Uasa, and Solidarity, which started on 1 July 2024.
The detail of the agreement is that category 4 to 8 employees, miners and artisans will receive whichever is the higher of a 5.5% or R900 per month increase. Officials will receive a 5.5% increase.
The last gold mine to be restructured by Sibanye-Stillwater was Beatrix in July when the group announced voluntary separation packages with 629 employees while another 111 employees were retrenched. A total of 1,130 contractors were also cut from the mine.
“We are pleased to have finalised this wage agreement, which is both fair for employees and affordable for the South African gold operations,” Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal said Froneman.
The performance of the gold mines was a highlight of the group’s third quarter production report. They generated 292% increase in adjusted Ebitda of R1.35bn ($75m), partly owing to a 24% increase in the rand gold price.
Froneman said on November 5 that Sibanye-Stillwater’s gold mines “are expected to generate substantial cashflow” in the current quarter given the price of the metal has continued to improve.
Gold is trading at $2,673/oz, a 2% decline in the past seven days but 30% higher this year. Some banks have forecast the metal will yet test $2,800/oz before the year-end before pressing on to $3,000 to $3,100/oz in the course of next year.