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Gold/Mining/Energy : Mining News of Note -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LoneClone who wrote (37526)	5/22/2009 8:02:57 PM
From: LoneClone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 194794

Santa Cruz strike over, mines see no impact on production miningweekly.com By: Francisca Pouiller 21st May 2009 BUENOS AIRES (miningweekly.com) – An eight hour strike last week by mine workers in the Argentine province of Santa Cruz did not have any material impact on production levels, a senior industry official told Mining Weekly Online. “The work and production were not affected, at all, as the problem was rapidly resolved, and the strike ended after eight hours, there was no serious damage,” said Miguel Angel Ferro, the president of government-owned mining company Fomicruz, which has several projects in the province. During the strike, most mines continued working with a much smaller crew, which allowed things to keep moving, he added. On May 7, around 50 members of a truck drivers' union occupied the San José property, and have since controlled all vehicles entering and exiting the property. The San José gold/silver deposit belongs to Minera Santa Cruz, in which Hochschild Mining owns 51% and Minera Andes holds 49%. The drivers demanded that 20 drivers working in the mine should be affiliated with the truck drivers' union, rather than the miners' labour body. In response, and to push for government intervention, the Argentine Mining Workers Association (AOMA) called a province-wide, open-ended strike on May 14th, involving 4 000 workers. The strike ended the following day, after the drivers left San Jose and all activities returned to normal. After several meetings between mining workers and truck drivers’ representatives and a compulsory conciliation held on Monday, both parties agreed to take the matter to the national Ministry of Labour. The Ministry will have to define which union will represent the truck drivers that work for Minera Santa Cruz. Hochschild Mining said later in a press release that it did not expect that the strike had had an impact on production and did not modify its targets for this year. "The stop has not impacted on the production goal set for 2009, of 28-million ounces silver,” the company said.