From Wall Street Journal

South Africa’s platinum-mining industry said on Wednesday that the industry’s main labor union has made fresh demands that go beyond a preliminary accord struck last week, a move set to delay a definitive agreement to end a long-running strike.

The new demands will cost the country’s biggest platinum producers an additional $93 million to the offer they made last week, something they “simply cannot afford,” the companies said in a joint statement. Lonmin said in a separate statement that it will cost it an additional $18 million alone.

The country’s biggest platinum mining companies— Anglo American Platinum Ltd., Impala Holdings and Lonmin—said they’re willing to negotiate with the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union around some of the issues it raised such as the length of the new wage agreement. The union wants the wage deal to run for three years rather than the five years the mining companies have proposed. It’s the new issues raised that pose a problem, the companies say.

The AMCU, which has led a 21-week long strike by more than 70,000 mine workers, inserted some fresh demands such as a one-time payment of roughly $270 to each worker, people involved in the mining talks said. The union also wants Lonmin PLC, the country’s third-biggest platinum producer, to rehire 235 workers it recently dismissed for participating in the strike.

AMCU didn’t respond for comment.

Anglo American Platinum Ltd., the world’s biggest platinum supplier, and the union met Wednesday and will hold another round of talks Thursday to discuss the new demands which management reckons are unaffordable, company spokeswoman Mpumi Sithole said.

Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. spokesman Johan Theron said some of the new issues raised by the union are “problematic” and that it “could still take some time” to sign a deal.

Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum, and Lonmin last week said they had reached an agreement in principle with the union to end the strike.

Read more at Wall Street Journal