DJ UPDATE: Zambia Maamba Coal Miners Strike Over Salaries -Union
Sep 30, 2009 (Dow Jones Commodities News via Comtex) --
(Adds copper mines impact, takeover details.)
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Workers at Zambia's largest coal mine, Maamba Collieries Ltd. are on strike to press for payment of four months of salary arrears, union officials said Wednesday.
The strikers will only end their action after being paid the wages they are owed, Evans Moyo, the Miners' Union of Zambia secretary in charge of Maamba Collieries, said.
"We shall continue to press management to address the grievances of workers," Moyo added.
Maamba Coal management could not comment immediately.
Maamba is the leading domestic supplier of coal to copper and cobalt mines in Zambia.
Miners can no longer afford to look after their families because of the delay in salary payments, the union officials said.
An official with Zambia's state mining company, Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Investment Ltd., or ZCCM-IH, said that the mine continued to experience financial problems because of reduced coal demand in Zambia blamed on cheap coal imports.
Maamba Collieries has been embroiled in a number of labor disputes with its workers in the past two years, which have hampered mining operations.
The government decided to hand over the mine to ZCCM-IH last year to revive its operations.
Since 2008, ZCCM-IH has been providing the mine workers salaries, but early this year when mining operations stabilized the state mining company asked Maamba management to secure customers for its coal to enable it meet its obligations.
Since ZCCM-IH stopped paying the miners, the management has cited low coal demand and not paid the workers, according to ZCCM-IH officials. In June, ZCCM-IH said it had reached an agreement with India-based Nava Bharat Ventures Ltd. (513023.BY) over the purchase of a 65% stake in Maamba in order to revive mining operations.
Nava Bharat is expected to invest up to $550 million in the mine, which will involve reviving mining operations and building a 350 megawatt thermal power plant at the mine to ease the current power shortage in the country. Nava Bharat is expected to take over the mine before the end of the year.
An official with Konkola Copper Mines told Dow Jones Newswires that coal supplies to copper mines are not expected to be affected because most mines import coal from countries like Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa. The mines opted for foreign suppliers last year, following several mining disruptions at Maamba.
Company officials have asked the government to ban cheap coal imports to protect local producers. Maamba has the capacity to produce up to 600,000 metric tons of coal a year but has been operating below capacity in the past couple of years.
The mine also exports coal to Congo's copper-rich Katanga province, located just across Zambia's northern border.
-By Nicholas Bariyo, contributing to Dow Jones Newswires; +256 75 262 4615;
bariyonic@yahoo.co.uk (END) Dow Jones Newswires
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