Rössing Uranium Limited and the Mineworkers Union of Namibia (MUN) Rössing Branch signed a settlement agreement on Friday, 11 May 2001 following their agreement to resolve the Union declared dispute on the rescheduling of the tea and lunch breaks at the mine near Arandis.

The resolution of the settlement agreement is in support of the Company's continuous business improvement programme and will greatly assist in improving efficiency. The tea and lunch break was rescheduled in March this year after it was found that valuable production time was lost around the 10:00 tea break. The tea break was rescheduled from 10 o'clock in the morning to eight o'clock when employees report for duty.

A jointly appointed conciliator, Mr Asser Kapere, facilitated the discussions between the Company and the Union.

It was agreed by both parties that as from Tuesday, 15 May 2001, the tea break will be added to the lunch break time. A single 35-minute combined lunch and refreshment break will be taken by all employees, from 12:00 to 12:35, which includes "washing up" and travel time.

Employees who are required to take medication or food with medication at times as prescribed by their doctor fall outside of this timing.

When some tasks on the mine require employees to take a lunch break at a different time, the employees and their supervisor will jointly agree to it.

It was further agreed that all disciplinary actions related to the rescheduling of the tea break time are cancelled.

A separate dispute declared by the MUN Rössing Branch was also resolved, which was about the deduction of pay for dayshift employees who stayed away from work to participate in an illegal strike from Friday, 30 March 2001 to the morning of Monday, 2 April 2001.

It was resolved that employees, who were not scheduled to be at work during the illegal strike, will not have payment deducted for the Saturday and the Sunday. But no standby allowance will be paid to those employees who had to be at work on the particular weekend and did not report for duty as well as those employees who were called out but refused to come to work.

ISSUED BY:
DAVID SALISBURY
Acting Managing Director / General Manager Operations Rössing Uranium Limited
Tel: 064 - 520 2316 Fax: 064 - 520 2253

ERICH BEUKES
Chairman of the MUN Rössing Branch Executive Committee
Cell: 081 250 7161