JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) will hold a mass meeting at Sibanye-Stillwater's Cooke Operations on the West Rand on Wednesday morning over the alleged issuing of termination letters to more 2 000 workers at the gold mine.

Reuters earlier quoted a Sibanye-Stillwater spokesperson as saying he could not immediately confirm the details.

NUM said in a media release that workers had been instructed not to go underground as preparation was under way to place the mine on care and maintenance.

The union added that its members would not give up their struggle for a dignified life and would continue to show fighting spirit and tenacity.

NUM expressed concern over the closure of operations in South Africa while billions of rands were being spent by the company on acquiring the Stillwater mine in the US.

The union expressed the view that the money being invested in the US should have been used to create jobs locally, where that wealth was generated. Stillwater in the US is a major palladium producer.

The union said that proposals had been sent to the company to minimise retrenchment numbers at Cooke.

A Section 189 Labour Relations Act process dealing with job scrutiny has been under way at Cooke, where hundreds of illegal miners were arrested earlier this year, along with 123 employees, who had been suspended for aiding and abetting illegal infiltration.

The Section 89 process arose after numerous unsuccessful attempts to contain ongoing losses at the operation, which was negatively affected by a three-week wildcat strike by employees in June in protest over Sibanye-Stillwater’s efforts to bring an end to illegal mining.

Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman expressed the view in August that financial losses experienced at Cooke and the company’s Beatrix West gold mine in the Free State threatened the future of other operations of the group, which employs 58 000 permanent employees in South Africa, where it also owns the Driefontein and Kloof gold mines, as well as various platinum mines.