'Sign wage deal,' South African strikers urge mining union leader

RUSTENBURG South Africa (Reuters) - Shop stewards from South Africa's striking AMCU mining union urged leader Joseph Mathunjwa to sign a wage deal with the three major platinum firms on Thursday at a dramatic mass rally crowning five months of industrial action.

The crowd of thousands of stick-wielding miners cheered as one senior union official took the microphone to declare: "Sign, Mathunjwa, sign."

"This union has worked. We want this money. We come from hardships. AMCU has worked. We can't take kids to school. Sign, Mathunjwa," another leader bellowed, winning a similar response from the miners.

Mathunjwa did not declare an official end to the longest and costliest strike in the 130-year history of South African mining, but the reaction from the miners suggests a return to work is in the offing.

The rapturous applause was in marked contrast to the mood at the start of the meeting, when miners greeted the wage offer with boos and jeers, shouting "Are they mad?"

Moments before the rally started, the three platinum firms - Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin - said they had reached "in principle undertakings" with the leaders of the strike.

They did not disclose details of the offer in statements to the stock exchanges in Johannesburg and London.

"The principles that underpin the proposals seek to achieve a sustainable future for the three platinum companies for the benefit of all stakeholders and to afford employees the best possible increase under the current financial circumstances," Lonmin said.

Shares in Lonmin jumped almost 8 percent, while Impala stock climbed 1.5 percent. However, Anglo American Platinum slipped around 1 percent.

Spot platinum prices fell more than 2 percent.

South Africa is home to 80 percent of the world's known platinum reserves. The strike halted production at mines that usually account for 40 percent of global output of the precious metal, which is used in jewellery and catalytic converters in vehicles.

The rand, which has been hurt by the stoppage due to the impact on foreign exchange earnings, rallied slightly.

The strike by the 70,000 AMCU members began in January and dragged Africa's most advanced economy into contraction in the first quarter as mining output fell at the steepest rate in half a century.

It also threatened to destabilise labour relations across South Africa as other groups, in particular the NUMSA metalworkers union, sharpened their rhetoric and pushed for strikes in pursuit of wage increases way above inflation.

According to a website run by the three companies, the strike has so far cost them 22 billion rand (1.2 billion pounds) in revenue, while workers have missed out on nearly 10 billion rand in wages.

AMCU burst onto the scene in 2012 when it emerged as the biggest union on the platinum belt after a bloody turf war with the established National Union of Mineworkers.

It hit international headlines in August of that year when 34 of its members, on a wildcat strike at Lonmin's Marikana mine, were gunned down by police, the worst security incident since the end of apartheid in 1994.

(Reporting by Zandi Shabalala; Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Stella Mapenzauswa and Joe Brock)

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