The KDC mine, formerly the Kloof mine, is a large mine located in the northern part of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

, near

Carletonville Carletonville is a town in Gauteng and the seat of the Merafong City Local Municipality in the West Rand District Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, just north of the richest gold-mining area in the world. At 3,749 m, Western Deep Levels hold ...

, and represents one of the largest

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

reserves in

having estimated reserves of 256.4 million tonnes of ore grading 0.0036%

. In 2012,

Gold Fields Gold Fields Limited (formerly The Gold Fields of South Africa) is one of the world's largest gold mining firms. Headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, the company is listed on both the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and the New York Sto ...

Limited unbundled its subsidiary, GFI Mining South Africa Proprietary Limited (“GFIMSA”), which was then renamed Sibanye Gold Limited (“Sibanye Gold”), and consisted of the KDC (formerly Kloof) and Beatrix mines, as well as an array of support service entities in South Africa.

2012 strike

In the aftermath of the

Marikana massacre The Marikana massacre was the killing of thirty-four miners by the South African Police Service (SAPS) on 16 August 2012 during a six-week wildcat strike at the Lonmin platinum mine at Marikana near Rustenburg in South Africa's North West prov ...

, workers at KDC West – formerly known as the Driefontein mine and by then the west section of KDC – entered an unprotected strike on 9 September, seeking a wage increase, among other demands. On 21 September, the strike spread to the west section of Gold Fields's Beatrix mine in the Free State; by 24 September, the entirety of the Beatrix mine had been affected. Thus, by 25 September, the majority of the workforce at both mines – 15,000 employees at KDC West and 9,000 employees at Beatrix – were on strike, and Gold Fields halted production at both mines. Imitating the

Lonmin Lonmin plc, formerly Lonrho plc, was a British producer of platinum group metals operating in the Bushveld Complex of South Africa. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange. Its registered office was in London, and its operational headquarters ...

workers at Marikana, Gold Fields strikers gathered and held vigil on a hill near to the mine. Gold Fields ordered the striking workers to vacate the mining hostels, where it said they had intimidated other workers and planned criminal activities; the hostels were later raided by Gold Fields private security, supported by SAPS. On 12 October, over 70 Gold Fields miners were arrested for public violence in connection with the strike. In response, several days later, the KDC West strike was joined by approximately 8,500 of the 12,400 employees employed at KDC East. With both sections of the KDC mine now affected – and 19,500 workers participating in KDC's workforce of 26,700 – Gold Fields suspended production at the entire KDC mine. However, the Gold Fields strike began to approach its resolution about a week later, when Gold Fields began issuing a series of ultimatums to its workers, threatening them with dismissal if they did not return to work. Many of the Beatrix employees returned on 16 October, and most of the KDC West employees followed on 18 October – though Gold Fields had to follow through on its ultimatum, firing 1,500 KDC West employees who did not show up for work before the deadline. However, an ultimatum failed to end the strike at KDC East and led Gold Fields to fire 8,100 workers there; most of those fired were later reinstated when the KDC East strike finally ended in early November.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kloof Mine Uranium mines in South Africa Economy of Gauteng