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The world's largest platinum producer, South Africa's Rustenburg Platinum Mines, has dismissed thousands of striking workers who defied a court order to return to work, a company official said yesterday.

The mine owners, Anglo American Platinum Corp Ltd (Amplats), said it had dismissed 3,600 workers yesterday after sacking 13,000 miners out of a total workforce of 28,000 on Monday. The mine, 90 miles north-west of Johannesburg, said it was losing 13.5 million rand (pounds 1.9m) a day as a result of the strike which began on Tuesday last week. Reuter - Johannesburg