Workers end sit-in at SAfrica platinum mine
* ARM to reinstate four sacked miners
* Company says production not affected
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 20 (Reuters) - A sit-in by 240 workers that halted operations at a South African platinum mine owned by African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) (ARIJ.J) and Impala Platinum (IMPJ.J) came to an end after four sacked workers were re-hired.
ARM spokeswoman Monique Swartz said the company had not lost any production during the stand-off between workers and management at Two Rivers mine.
"Normal operations have resumed. We have not lost anything as the plant (continued) operating from stockpiles," Swartz said.
The employees staged the sit-in to demand the sacking of a manager, who they say fired the four workers without justification. The protest had halted underground mining operations for the precious metal.
Lesiba Seshoka, spokesman for the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), South Africa's largest union, said ARM had agreed to reinstate the four workers that had been sacked.
He said the manager had not been sacked.
Implats, the world's second largest platinum producer, and supplier of a quarter of the world's platinum, has said it expects to lose 100,000 ounces in platinum group metal output in the financial year to end-June as a result of safety and a workers strike over wages. (Reporting by Shapi Shacinda; editing by Sue Thomas)
