SA gold miners braced for strikes South Africa's beleaguered gold mining sector is braced for more turbulence after the industry's dominant union issued a strike notice on Friday following failed pay talks. After weeks of negotiations, the parties remain far apart, with two unions - the main National Union of Mineworkers and the newer Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union - refusing to yield to demands of increases for entry-level workers of roughly 60 per cent and 120 per cent respectively, executives say. Gold companies, including AngloGold Ashanti, Harmony Gold and Sibanye, made a final offer of an increase of up to 6.5 per cent, which was rejected on Thursday. Workers are expected to down tools from Monday. But producers appear determined to play hardball after being hit by a wave of industrial unrest last year that cost producers about R5bn. "This is it - this is our final offer," said Graham Briggs, Harmony's chief executive, speaking on behalf of producers. There's no money in the account. You can push your card into the ATM as often as you like, it's still going to tell you there's no money in the account. He added: "The gold industry is at stake, and we believe part of South Africa is at stake." Gold companies, which negotiate through collective bargaining under the umbrella of the Chamber of Mines, blame the bitter rivalry between the NUM and Amcu for the unions" tough stance, which negotiators say is unprecedented in recent years. Amcu rapidly increased its presence following last year's wildcat strikes. It has about a 17 per cent representation in gold mines and is the dominant union in platinum. Neal Froneman, chief executive of Sibanye, a new company that was formed after Gold Fields spun off its South African assets, said: "That [rivalry] is why we have got stupid demands on the table . . . Clearly, I don't think any one of those unions in their right minds would ever expect to settle that, but it's union business. Lesiba Seshoka of the NUM rubbished the concerns about union rivalries, saying producers were at fault and that they were offering a monthly rise of R300 ($30) - "less than managers spend on parking tickets each month." "And they tell people to live on that," he added. We will not compromise. We will get the strike next week, and it will be indefinite if they continue with their arrogance. South Africa's gold industry produced more than two-thirds of the world's gold at its peak in the 1970s, and although it has been in decline for years, it is still the sixth-largest producer, employing about 140,000 people. Executives insist that many mines are already lossmaking or operating on wafer-thin margins as maturing shafts get deeper and electricity and salary costs rise. They say labour costs - which account for more than half of production costs - have increased 240 per cent a kilogramme in the past 10 years. Producers estimate that a strike in the sector would lead to daily revenue losses of about R349m and a total economic cost of about R597m a day. But unions insist workers are underpaid in an industry that profited from cheap black labour during the decades of discrimination and apartheid. The basic entry level salary in gold is about R5,000 a month, which rises to about R10,000 with benefits and bonuses, although it varies from company to company. Amcu is demanding that the minimum wage for underground workers be more than doubled to R12,500 a month - a rallying call during last year's strikes - in both gold and platinum. The outcome of the impasse in gold could set a precedent for other sectors - negotiations are already under way in coal, and Impala Platinum has recently started talks in that sector. "Our most important industry [mining] is in crisis, and we have not yet found the answer to stemming the tide of destruction," said Mark Cutifani, chief executive of Anglo American - who is also president of the Chamber of Mines - in a passionate speech at an industry dinner on Thursday. If we lose each other in the current discussions, we will count the costs in mines closed and tens of thousands of jobs lost.