Protests at Lonmin's South African mine leave dozens more dead

Riot police have shot dead dozens of miners at Lonmin's Marikana platinum project in South Africa, as a week of protests over pay have turned the FTSE 250 group's mine into a warzone.

In what The Guardian labels as "one of the deadliest days of protest in South Africa since the end of apartheid", more than 30 workers who were on strike at Marikana were gunned down by authorities, according to the South African police ministry.

Fighting between rival labour unions at the site had already claimed the lives of eight Lonmin employees and two policemen over the past few days.

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Speaking just yesterday in a press release, Lonmin said that it "welcomes the increased presence of the South African Police Services (SAPS) at the site of the mine, and is cooperating fully with the authorities to help restore a safe and secure environment for its employees as quickly as possible".

According to The Independent, the leaders of the two trade unions at Marikana - the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mining and Construction Union (Amcu) - have blamed Lonmin for the trouble.

A NUM spokesperson claimed that Lonmin had attempted to increase pay for just a small group of miners, saying: "The company undermined the bargaining process by unilaterally offering an allowance to rock-drill operators outside the bargaining process."

Meanwhile, Amcu's representative condemned Lonmin for negotiating with individuals outside of union structures, but said that NUM members had instigated the violence after shooting at its members last week.

The violence will not only be extremely costly to Lonmin's reputation, but will no doubt have a big impact on production volumes this year. The firm said on Thursday that it would probably miss its full-year guidance of 750,000 saleable ounces of platinum.

The six days of lost production already represents 300,000 tonnes of ore, equal to 15,000 platinum equivalent ounces.

Lonmin's shares tanked in early trading on Friday.