BLBG : Gold Fields Faces Strike at Ghana’s Largest Gold Mine
Workers at Gold Fields Ltd.’s Tarkwa operation in Ghana, the country’s largest mine for the precious metal, started a “go-slow” that may escalate into a strike, according to the Ghana Mineworkers’ Union.
“They’ve been working but the efficiency has been reduced drastically,” said labor union General Secretary Prince William Ankrah by phone today from the capital, Accra.
Tarkwa, in Ghana’s western region, produced 646,000 ounces last year and Johannesburg-based Gold Fields is targeting 700,000 ounces for 2009, according to its Web site.
A meeting between Gold Fields officials and the labor union in Accra later today will decide the next step, Ankrah said. “We are concerned about the disparity of pay between expatriates and nationals. The gap is widening.”
Gold Fields spokesman Julian Gwillim couldn’t immediately comment when Bloomberg News contacted him on his mobile phone.
Last month, workers at AngloGold Ashanti Ltd.’s operations in Ghana went on a one-day strike over pay. Talks with the company are ongoing, Ankrah said today.
To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Biesheuvel in London tbiesheuvel@bloomberg.net; Emily Bowers in Accra at ebowers1@bloomberg.net
