Lonmin slides again as miners march

Around 1,000 miners at Lonmin's Marikana site are staging a protest march as the stand off over pay which led to the death of thirty four workers continues.

The mine has now been at a standstill for four weeks, despite reports earlier in the week that the rock drillers and Lonmin bosses had agreed a pay deal in principle.

Reuters reported that the marching miners were carrying sticks and whips and repeating their demands for a hike in their base pay to 12,500 rand a month - about £950 and more than double their current salary.

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One protester told the agency the demonstrators were marching to Lonmin's nearby Karee mine to "take out the people who are working in the mine shaft".

The news pushed Lonmin's shares down 4% in morning trading; they have now fallen by more than a quarter since work at the mine ground to a halt.

Platinum prices have also risen by around 10% during the period.

The pay dispute at Lonmin's platinum mine and the violence that followed has been stoked by tensions between rival trade unions, the National Union of Mineworkers and the recently-formed Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union.

This led to a bloody showdown with police that left 34 miners dead.

Despite the police opening fire, 270 of the workers were subsequently arrested for murder under controversial Apatheid-era laws.

However, the charges have been provisionally dropped by prosecutors.

Talks on resolving the dispute were due to restart on Wednesday morning in the nearby city of Rustenburg.

The Marikana mine accounts for almost all of Lonmin's platinum output, with the company itself supplying around 12% of total global output of the precious metal.

The dispute has brought industrial relations to the boil across South Africa's mining sector.

On Monday security guards at a gold mine part-owned by Nelson Mandela's grandson shot and injured four miners taking part in a pay dispute.

A police spokesman said the guards had fired rubber bullets to break up a fight between striking and non-striking workers at the Gold One mine, which was previously known as Aurora.