An agreement in principle looks set to end the longest strike in South Africa's mining history, 21 weeks after more than 70,000 platinum miners walked off the job demanding a near tripling of wages. The three affected producers - Anglo American (LSE: AAL; US-OTC: AAUKY) subsidiary Anglo American Platinum, Im-pala Platinum (LSE: IPLA) and Lonmin (LSE: LMI) - held firm that such increases were not possible in the current markets, where stockpiled inventories and global economic weakness have reduced platinum prices by 25% in a few years, just as rising power prices and wage increases pushed costs up.
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