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UPDATE 1-Strike hits First Quantum's Zambia copper mine
Fri Mar 2, 2012 6:46am GMT Print | Single Page [-] Text [+]
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LUSAKA, March 2 (Reuters) - Production at the Zambian flagship copper mine of Canada's First Quantum Minerals has ground to a halt because of a strike over wages, the Zambian labour minister said on Friday.
Workers at the Kansanshi mine, Zambia's largest copper mine, which produced 231,000 tonnes of the red metal in 2010, downed tools on Thursday, Fackson Shamenda said in a statement.
"There is a deadlock in salary negotiations. The union is demanding a 17 percent salary increment and the management is offering 13 percent," Shamenda said.
Kansanshi mine company spokesman Godfrey Msiska separately said workers had blocked the entrance to the mine and nobody was allowed to enter the premises.
"There is nothing happening," Msiska said. "The workers have blocked the entrance to the mine and we are not producing copper."
Union officials and the mine management will meet Zambia's vice president Guy Scott later on Friday over the deadlock, Charles Mukuka, acting president of the Mine Workers' Union of Zambia, told Reuters.
Glencore International's Mopani Copper Mines in Zambia in February agreed a 17 percent pay rise with unions, almost triple the rate of inflation.
Konkola Copper Mines, part of London-listed Vedanta Resources, awarded a similar pay increase in January. (Reporting by Chris Mfula; Editing by Ed Stoddard and Clarence Fernandez)