EDITORIAL Labor costs in S.A.

Gold miners in the world’s largest gold producing country, the Republic of South Africa, have always received a much lower wage than their counterparts in Canada. As bargaining gets under way this year, South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers is asking for a 35% minimum wage increase to bring underground workers’ minimum wage to about $75 a week. Last year NUM settled for wage increases varying from 13% to 21% on a mine-by-mine basis. The low wage level compared with that in Canada is, of course, the result of differences in culture and local economies. Nevertheless, there’s no doubt that South African mine workers are demanding more substantial wages and will likely be more aggressive in pursuing those demands given the changing political climate in South Africa. The release from jail of political leader Nelson Mandela and the first official talks between the government and the African National Congress, of which Mandela is vice- chairman, will undoubtedly increase the expectations of NUM members.

It will be a long time before South African wages for miners meet Canadian standards, if indeed they ever will. Even so, South African gold producers, many of which are already high-cost producers, are certainly going to have to cope with increasing labor costs in the years to come.