Thousands of South African mine workers return to work after a five month strike over pay.

These were the scenes at the Marikana operations of platinum producer Lonmin.

Workers lined up for medical and other checks before descending into the shafts to begin production.

This has been the longest and most costly strike in the country's history.

The union behind the strike had initially called for a doubling of miners' basic wages

In the end, its members settled for increases that amounted to around 20 percent annually.

The fallout from five months of production lost mean that the world's three biggest platinum firms who run the mines say that job cuts and restructuring are now inevitable.