The world’s top platinum miners are bracing for a fresh round of negotiations with South African workers as a rise in producer profits is likely to provoke higher wage demands from labour unions including the militant AMCU. Higher prices for palladium and rhodium and a weaker rand currency have boosted profits at miners such as Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), Sibanye-Stillwater, Impala Platinum and Lonmin after several years of losses. This could embolden the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), which last month ended a five-month strike at Sibanye’s gold operations, to demand increases that ... (full story)