Anglo Platinum, ARM Mine Halted as Six Die After Bus Torched

(Bloomberg) -- African Rainbow Minerals Ltd., known as ARM, said operations were halted at the Modikwa platinum mine in South Africa after six workers traveling to the mine were killed when their bus was torched.

Another 44 people were receiving medical attention, African Rainbow Minerals spokeswoman Jongisa Magagula said in an emailed response to questions. A petrol bomb was thrown at the bus late Monday night, the National Union of Mineworkers said in a statement earlier.

The mine is co-owned with Anglo American Platinum Ltd. It's unclear who set the bus alight and the mine management is assisting police in their investigation, the companies said in a joint statement Tuesday.

Social unrest and violence is a perennial problem in South Africa's platinum belt, where many of the residents around the mines live in improvised shacks without running water and say they haven't benefited enough from the region's mineral wealth. Last year, protesters demanding jobs and money disrupted several operations and a bus that ferried Lonmin Plc workers was destroyed. In 2012, 34 protesters were killed by police near Marikana in the deadliest state shooting since white minority rule ended in 1994.

Read more: Platinum drop fires social unrest as villagers turn on mines

To contact the reporter on this story: Felix Njini in Nairobi at fnjini@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson at lthomasson@bloomberg.net, Liezel Hill, Helen Nyambura

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