Amplats to give asset sale update in June -S.Africa's AMCU union

* Amplats plans to sell Rustenburg, Union mines

* Company to focus more on its mechanised mines

* Workers not a "piece of equipment" -union leader (Adds AMCU comments after meeting with Amplats' CEO)

By Zandi Shabalala

JOHANNESBURG, March 19 (Reuters) - South Africa's Anglo American Platinum could give an indication of who plans to buy its Rustenburg assets by June, the president of the AMCU union said on Thursday after meeting the firm's CEO.

Amplats, the world's top producer of the white metal, has said it plans to focus on its more mechanised mines and sell its labour-intensive operations, including the Rustenburg and Union assets after the strike further damaged their viability.

Mathunjwa said he met Amplats Chief Executive Chris Griffith on Thursday afternoon to discuss the proposed sale of the mines where the union led a record five-month wage strike last year.

"By June, we will be seeing a clearer indication of who will be buying and what will be happening," Joseph Mathunjwa, president of the hardline Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), told Reuters.

"We made it clear from the onset that we want to know who is buying and if workers can have an equity interest. We want to make sure that whoever is buying is not a bogus company."

Mathunjwa said Amplats had informed the union the firm was scouting for potential buyers of the two mines it plans to sell.

Amplats was not immediately available for comment.

The Amplats mines' profitability were dealt a blow when unions won pay increases of up to 20 percent following the strike that ended in June last year.

The work stoppage also affected production at Amplats rivals Impala Platinum (Other OTC: IMPUY - news) and Lonmin .

Earlier, Mathunjwa told reporters in a briefing that "workers cannot be treated as piece of equipment... workers must have a say in these assets at the end of the day."

AMCU gained popularity after the platinum belt strike and snatched members off the once unrivalled National Union of Mineworkers, sparking a wave of violence in a bloody turf war.

GOLD WAGE TALKS

The union has also expanded into the gold and coal sectors where two-year wage agreements will expire in end-June.

Wage talks are expected to be bruising with NUM, which represents 57 percent of workers in the gold sector, saying it could demand 100 percent increases.

Mathunjwa said AMCU would submit its members' wage demands in mid-April.

"I don't expect anything good (from the negotiations) because workers are being treated as slaves, it's a slave and master, so we have to cut that chain," Mathunjwa said. (Editing by James Macharia)