Thousand striking miners in protest after police massacre 34 rock drillers in South Africa

More than 1,000 striking miners waving sticks and whips demonstrated today at South Africa’s Marikana mine, where police shot dead 34 of their colleagues last month in the bloodiest security violence since the end of apartheid in the early Nineties.

Dozens of police arrived at the scene while a helicopter hovered above the protesting rock-drill operators, whose strike to demand a hefty pay increase is now in its fourth week, crippling the mine’s London-based owner Lonmin.

The miners are demanding a pay rise to 12,500 rand (£930) a month, more than double their current salary.

One of the protesters said they were heading to Lonmin’s nearby Karee mine to “take out the people who are working in the mine shaft”.

Marikana accounts for the vast majority of the platinum output of Lonmin, which itself accounts for 12 per cent of global supply of the precious metal.

Both Marikana and Karee have been closed since thousands of rock drillers went on a wildcat strike and protest nearly four weeks ago.

Talks between Lonmin management, unions and the government to ease tensions and get the miners back to work were due to resume this morning in the nearby city of Rustenburg.

World platinum prices have risen more than 10 per cent since the Marikana shootings, while Lonmin’s shares have fallen more than 15 per cent.