JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has warned that a strike in South Africa’s gold mining sector was “imminent”, after wage negotiations deadlocked over a 7% offer from gold companies.

The NUM on Thursday announced that talks with the Chamber of Mines’ (CoM’s) gold employers had deadlocked and that negotiations would now move to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) for possible conciliation.

"Today the parties involved in the gold wage negotiations agreed to invoke the dispute resolutions mechanisms of the CCMA in order to make progress. A dispute was declared against the background of the parties having reached agreement on some demands including those regarding skills development, employee share wwnership plans and protective clothing for women working underground," the CoM said in a statement.

The CoM's chief negotiator for the gold companies Dr Elize Strydom, added that there were some issues that could be better dealt with in a facilitated process and that the gold companies remained committed to finding a "real balance" between the needs of the employees and the companies.

If conciliation at the CCMA were to fail, a certificate of nonresolution to the dispute would be issued to the union, the NUM stated, saying that the deadlock signified a step closer to industrial action, which would see in excess of 150 000 mineworkers go on strike action.

“It has always been our intention to bargain in good faith, to try reach a settlement through negotiations, but this year looks like we will have to use a different tool in strike action,” NUM general secretary Frans Baleni added.

Both the NUM and fellow trade union Solidarity had demanded a 15% wage increase for employees in the gold sector.

Solidarity spokesperson Reint Dykema confirmed that negotiations would continue at the CCMA on June 17, after both AngloGold Ashanti and GoldFields had made a 7% wage increase offer.

He noted that Harmony Gold had indicated that it would still hold bilateral talks with trade unions over a potential higher offer.

Dykema noted that it would give the negotiations at the CCMA a chance before members would decide to go on strike.