Says CEO Bobby Godsell: "Strikes are by their nature unpleasant and costly. However it is pleasing that the strike was resolved reasonably quickly and was conducted in an orderly manner. It is an indication of how far we have come since the last wage strike in 1987, which lasted for three weeks and involved significant violence.

"The settlement, involving the lowest percentage increases ever, was also an important step in establishing a norm of lower single digit increases in an environment of low inflation," he added.

Says AngloGold Ashanti South Africa region head Robbie Lazare: "With the three lost production shifts and the start up to normalised production, we have effectively lost just over a tonne of gold.

Our focus now will be on improving productivity initiatives so as to offset increased costs, and working with the unions to recover some of the lost shifts." The two-year agreement, effective 1 July 2005, can be summarised as follows:

- Wage increases of between 6% and 7%, with the highest increase for the lowest job category; - A wage increase in the second year of CPIX plus 1%, subject to a guaranteed increase of between 5,5% and 6%, again depending on the job category; - Increased employer contributions to the risk benefit within the retirement fund; and - Improvements in accommodation subsidies.