S. AFRICA MINING HOUSE REPORTS HUGE STRIKE LOSSES
A major South African mining house
on Monday reported two of its gold mines suffered huge losses
as a result of a black miners' strike in August which crippled
about half the country's crucial gold mines.
    Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Company, one of the
six major mining houses, said the two mines suffered a combined
net loss of 9.7 mln dlrs in the three months to end-September
compared with a profit of 8.6 mln dlrs in the preceding
quarter.
    It was the first indication of the real economic impact of
the biggest wage strike in the history of the gold mining
industry, which accounts for nearly half the value of South
Africa's total exports.
    "The results were pretty disastrous, primarily due to the
impact of the strike," Ken Maxwell, head of Johannesburg
Consolidated's gold division, told a news conference in
Johannesburg.
    "We haven't recovered from the strike yet," he said, adding
that 70 percent of underground mining at the group's biggest
mine, Randfontein Estates, was halted by the three-week strike.
    Johannesburg Consolidated and its controlling company, the
giant Anglo American Corp., were hard-hit by the three-week
miners' strike, but refused to disclose production losses.
    Anglo American is due to report its quarterly gold-mine
profits later this week.
 Reuter
