About 25,000 Zimbabwean miners began a nationwide strike to demand higher wages, the Associated Mineworkers Union of Zimbabwe said.

About 40,000 people work in the mines, producing gold, ferrochrome, coal, nickel, diamonds and platinum. They include state-owned sites and those run by companies such as Zimbabwe Platinum Ltd., the Zimbabwe Mining and Smelting Co., RioZim Ltd., Rio Tinto Plc and Metallon Corp. Zimbabwe’s platinum and chrome deposits are the second-biggest after South Africa.

Neither the union nor the Chamber of Mines would specify which mines have been affected by today’s walkout.

“The Chamber of Mines hasn’t been negotiating with us,” the union’s president, Tinago Ruziwe, said today by phone from the capital, Harare. “We realize the mining industry is still in trouble, but workers cannot survive on $140 a month. We are demanding a living salary of $290 a month.”

Chamber of Mines Chief Executive Chris Honkonya said the strike was “unfortunate because we believed negotiations were continuing.” In a phone interview from Harare, he said, “The strike will mean a loss of productivity, thus making it harder for our members to pay their workers.”

The union president said he expected more miners to join the action in the coming days.

Arbitration began after talks between the union and the Chamber of Mines, which represents medium- and large-scale mining companies, failed in October.

Zimbabwe’s mining industry showed signs of recovery last year after a decade of decline during a recession in which the International Monetary Fund said inflation soared to 500 billion percent.

The mines are still hampered by erratic electricity supplies and caution over a law that may force foreign miners to cede 51 percent of their shares to black Zimbabweans.

By Bloomberg

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