JOHANNESBURG, Dec 4 (Reuters) - South Africa's biggest miners' union said on Tuesday that a one-day strike to protest against mounting mine deaths had started as planned at midnight in the world's top producer of platinum and gold.

Almost a quarter of a million members of the country's biggest mining union are expected to down tools in the first-ever national and industry-wide strike on safety, as the death toll in the mines hovers around 200 this year.

"The strike started at midnight and we plan a protest march for workers later," Lesiba Seshoka, the National Union of Mineworkers' spokesman told Reuters. (Reporting by James Macharia)

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