The Mission Group Regulatory News (TMG)

19 Oct 2005 14:30

Thistle Mining Inc.19 October 2005 Thistle reports on agreement reached with the Unions at its President Steyn MineJohannesburg, October 19th, 2005 - Thistle Mining Inc. ("Thistle") (AIM: TMG) Thistle announces that management of its President Steyn Gold Mine ("the Mine")in South Africa reached agreement with the National Union of Mine Workers andthe Solidarity Union pursuant to section 189A of the Labour Relations Act. Asection 189A restructuring obliges the employer and the unions to engage in aprocess of consultation, the purpose of which is to attempt to reach consensuson a broad range of issues, including measures to avoid job losses and, shouldthese become necessary, the timing, selection criteria and the severance termsof such losses. Key elements of the agreement are: • Termination of certain contractors. Formal notice has been given to these contractors in terms of contractual agreements with the Mine. • Undertaking by the Unions to work a 6-day work week and to terminate Continuous Operations (operational on every day of the year other than South African public holidays) at number 3 shaft as from October 17th 2005. The Continuous Operations agreement negotiated with the Unions earlier in the year has proved not to be as productive as originally planned. • Re-employment provisions. Should there be a need to engage employees in the future: (i) management have agreed to recall retrenched employees for a 12 month recall period, and (ii) thereafter management have agreed to give preference to retrenched employees for a further 12 month period. • Severance terms for voluntary and involuntary retrenchments. The severance package includes the payment of one month's notice period plus payment of 2 weeks of wages for every year of completed service. • Provision has also been made for retraining of employees who are subject to involuntary retrenchment. The number of voluntary and involuntary retrenchments amounts to approximately52 and 1347 employees respectively, or 27% of the current workforce at the Mine.This is less than the 2,000 jobs that management initially believed might beaffected and gives credit to the Section 189 consultancy process. After givingeffect to the retrenchments production staff has been reduced by approximately10% in aggregate while non-production staff has been reduced by approximately40% in aggregate. The total cost of retrenchment is estimated at approximately R 29 million or US$ 4.5 million. The implementation of the agreement is expected by management to assist inrestoring the profitability of the Mine. Statements made in this news release that relate to future plans, events orperformances are forward-looking statements. Any statement containing words suchas "believes", "plans", "expects" or "intends" and other statements which arenot historical facts contained in this release are forward-looking and thesestatements are based on current expectations and involve risks and uncertaintiesthat are described in Thistle's publicly available documents, which areaccessible at www.sedar.com. Consequently, actual outcomes and results maydiffer materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements andreaders are cautioned not to place undue reliance on them. For further information, contact: Andy Graetz, Chief Financial Officer + 27 57 391 9026 or email toagraetz@disselgroup.com Paul Marchand, Company Secretary, +44 207 494-6060. Neil Murray-Lyon of Renmark +1 514-939-3989 or Brian Gibson + 27 880 1510. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange