Around 110,000 South African miners accepted an increased wage offer on Thursday and unions asked their members to resume work, ending the first industry-wide strike in the country's gold sector in 18 years, Reuters reprted. The Chamber of Mines said the country's biggest mining union, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), was the first to call off its strike, asking its around 100,000 members to resume work on Thursday night in the world's top bullion producer. The Chamber of Mines, which negotiates on behalf of South Africa's gold producers, late on Wednesday gave miners a new wage offer, raising wages by between 6 and 7 percent. "Overall there was acceptance of the offer, the process has come to its logical conclusion, the strike ends," Gwede Mantashe, general secretary of the NUM, told Reuters. "The first shift goes back to work tonight (Thursday), and there should be full normality by the Friday evening shift." Mantashe said the strike was taxing yet highly rewarding. --more 2115 Local Time 1815 GMT
