- South Africa's major gold miners, including AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU), Harmony Gold (NYSE:HMY) and Sibanye Gold (NYSE:SBGL), have begun talks with labor unions to discuss wage increases and other employment conditions.
- The process is expected to drag on for weeks or even months, while any strike action could further hurt the bottom lines of the country’s already-struggling mining companies amid weak gold prices and soaring electricity costs due to frequent power outages.
- Unions represent more than 80% of South Africa’s gold workers and say the companies can afford an increase of more than 80% in the basic monthly pay of entry-level underground miners.
- HMY -6.2%, AU -1.1% premarket.