As Sibanye-Stillwater gold mineworkers prepare to return to work after agreeing on a wage deal, analysts said their victory could be short-lived as it will take them years to recoup the more than R1.2bn they forfeited in wages during the protracted strike.

The analysts said the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) — the two biggest unions that embarked on a nearly three-month wage strike at Sibanye’s gold operations — should have settled on a deal a lot sooner...