South Africa: Gold and platinum soar,workers demand 300% wage increase

 Sahit Muja

Sahit Muja: South Africa: Gold and platinum soar,workers demand 300% wage increase.
 Unrest in South Africa's platinum miners is spreading, workers at the nearby Royal Bafokeng platinum mine stop working today and blocked fellow miners from going to work.

Anglo American Platinum, has also received a list of demands from a group of workers in South Africa.
Managers from Lonmin met workers' representatives on Tuesday night for the first time since 34 Marikana mine strikers were shot by police. Ten other people, including two police officers, died in violence last week.

The 3,000 Lonmin workers are demanding that their wages be trebled from 4,000 rand to 12,500 rand a month . South African president Jacob Zuma has entered the debate, telling workers on Wednesday that he would speak to Lonmin about their wage demands.

Labor strikes and killing of 44 people in South African platinum industry spread fears of mining crisis in one of the main commodity-producing countries in the world.

Platinum and gold prices continued to soar as investors concerned with supply disruptions.
The unrest in South African has started to affect global commodities markets Plitinum price increase to $1,524 a troy ounce, up 10 percent since the killing of the workers. Gold prices rose to $1,637.40.80 an ounce.

South Africa is the world’s largest platinum producer, ferrochrome and chrome ore and fifth-largest gold producer.

South Africa is famous for its abundance of mineral resources, accounting for a significant proportion of world production and reserves

Albanian Minerals estimated that South Africa’s total mineral proven reserves worth of $3 trillion in today's market price.

South Africa has the world’s largest reserves of manganese, chrome ore and platinum group metals and among the largest reserves of gold, diamonds, coal, aluminum, iron ore and vanadium.

South Africa’s prolific mineral reserves include precious metals and minerals, energy minerals, non-ferrous metals and minerals, ferrous minerals, and industrial minerals.

Given its history and mineral wealth, it is no surprise that the country’s mining companies are key players in South Africa's economy and global mining industry.

Sahit Muja
President and CEO
Albanian Minerals
New York