Wage negotiations kicked off on Monday amid fresh efforts to end the month-long strike at the violence-stricken Lonmin Marikana Platinum Mine.

The negotiations involved the striking miners, the management and several unions representing the workers, including the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Salidariy, union US and

the militant Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) which did not sign a peace accord reached last week with the aim of ending the strike through negotiations.

AMCU agreed to participate in the negotiations, but said it could not guarantee that its members would return to work.

As required by the peace accord, workers should return to work on Monday. But most workers were absent as the negotiations got started.

The mine reported a 6.34 percent attendance prior to the start of the negotiations. Striking miners threatened to stop operations, staging a march from Wonderkop near Johannesburg to Lonmin's nearby Eastern Platinum mine, where operation has resumed.

AMCU said it refused to join the accord because the deal failed to meet the workers' demand to raise their salaries to 12,500 rands (about 1,500 U. S. dollars) from the current 4,500 rands (about 555 dollars).



Monday's negotiations would focus on ways to get workers to return to work, according to sources.

Continued suspension of production put the country's reputation as a stable investment at stake, union Solidarity said.

The strike has cost the company a loss of 2,500 ounces of platinum daily.

Thousands of miners staged a wage protest on Aug. 10. The protest led to internal fighting between striking miners belonging to NUM and the AMCU, which have been vying for dominance among the workers. Ten people, including two police officers, were killed. In ensuing clashes with police, 34 miners died in what was believed to be the worst mine tragedy since the end of apartheid in 1994.