Rio Tinto says Rossing strike in 3rd day, illegal

Global miner Rio Tinto said on Thursday that a strike at its Rossing Uranium mine in Namibia had entered its third day and it could not say yet what impact there had been on production.

It also said in a statement that the strike was illegal and it was hoping to bring in measures to allow workers who wanted to return to their jobs to do so.

"The situation has not normalized despite the undertaking that was made ... between the company and the Mineworkers Union of Namibia branch executive that was meant to lead to a peaceful settlement of the issues raised by the striking employees," it said.

"In the undertaking both parties had agreed, under the mediation, that all employees must go back to work immediately and the company would waive its right to institute disciplinary actions against any employee taking part in the illegal strike," it said, but did not specify what issues had caused the walk-out.

The union could not immediately be reached for comment.

Rossing is majority owned by Rio and had almost 1,600 full-time employees at the end of 2010. It is the world's third largest producer of uranium oxide.

Rio's share of production in Rossing was 1.7 million tonnes in the first half of 2011.

Strike action in neighbouring South Africa may threaten global supplies of gold and platinum at a time when commodity prices are red hot.

(Reporting by Servaas van den Bosch, additional reporting by Clara Ferreira-Marques; Writing by Ed Stoddard)