Industry News

Gold mining strikes plaguing companies worldwide

Gold One International has fired 1,035, more than half of its employees at its main Modder East unit in South Africa, for participating in what was referred to as an illegal strike action last week, according to a Bloomberg report.

In Johannesburg trading, Gold One dropped 3.9 percent to 3.70 on June 10, the news source stated, with its Sydney shares last trading on June 7 down 1.2 percent at 41.5 Australian cents.

The company announced on June 4 the work stoppage by day-shift miners who aligned themselves with the Professional Transport Allied Workers Union was unprotected and breached a three-year wage accord signed in April 2010, the news source stated.

Meanwhile, the Kinross Gold Corporation announced the strike at its Tasiast gold mine in Mauritania, which had been under way since June 5, has come to an end, according to a report from Dow Jones Newswires.

Kinross announced the employees participated in an "unlawful work stoppage" and that talks were in the process to settle "certain issues raised by employees."

Gold exploration and mining procedures are currently under way, without striking involved, in Alaska, British Columbia and the Sonora state of Mexico.