AI, robots and shrinking supply drive Northam’s PGM growth plans
Northam Platinum is betting that new uses for platinum group metals in artificial intelligence, data storage, electronics and robotics will add to demand at a time when South…
Can this be the PGM market’s next big thing?
THE hydrogen economy was supposed to be platinum’s salvation, but it is turning out to be the lightest of lifelines. Deployment of electrolyser capacity, the technology that…
Valterra Platinum to pay R15.1bn bumper interim dividend
VALTERRA Platinum followed up a special dividend at its year-end results in February with another handsome payout saying on Wednesday it would dish out 70% of interim earnings,…
Northam Platinum’s ‘mine without end’ exposes SA’s supply crisis
NORTHAM Platinum CEO Paul Dunne might joke that “there’s no luck in mining”, but fortune has certainly favoured his company in the past few months. For starters, resource…
Platinum selldown a “pothole, not the end of the road”
PLATINUM shares have returned to buy territory after months of falling metals prices, sending valuations lower. The basket price for platinum, palladium and rhodium, the main…
Platinum Week cognoscenti agree the metal will keep rolling on
PLATINUM has been on the wrong end of the Middle East crisis falling 13% since hostilities between the US and Israel and Iran began. Yet industry mavens who gathered for the…
Is this a new era for platinum? Its miners think so
SINCE the decline of gold production in the 1990s, platinum has become South Africa’s most valuable strategic metal, and among its most important economically. Of critical raw…
Valterra normalizes quarterly production after last year’s flooding
VALTERRA Platinum’s first quarter production benefited from comparisons with a year ago, when its second biggest mine, Amandelbult, was hit by flooding. The numbers also…
Northam Platinum to pay record R2.8bn interim dividend
NORTHAM Platinum declared a record R2.8bn interim dividend following a strong recovery in headline earnings for the six months to end-December. The year-on-year improvement was…
Valterra makes hay to take edge off tricky maiden year
VALTERRA Platinum made hay in the fourth quarter increasing sales of platinum group metals four percent year-on-year to 1,042 million ounces. The increase was a function of…
Platinum price “tailwind” offsets Implats’ disrupted Q1
IMPALA Platinum (Implats) welcomed the improved platinum group metal (PGM) market which helped offset disrupted first quarter production. Commenting in an update on Friday, the…
Valterra recovers from flooding amid 30% price surge
VALTERRA Platinum said production at its Amandelbult mine in South Africa’s Limpopo province had recovered during the third quarter following heavy flooding earlier this year.…
Fragile supply gives platinum price new lease on life
IT was once common to describe the platinum price in terms of gold, the so-called gold-platinum ratio. Then came the global financial crisis in 2008. As automakers’ demand…
Dunne sunny on PGMs despite habitual caution
WHILE Northam Platinum CEO Paul Dunne claims to be “cautious” about platinum group metals (PGMs), a detailed presentation he gave at the JSE on Friday indicates a more positive…
Northam wary on platinum as profits fall
NORTHAM Platinum struggled in the year to end-June pushing up revenues 6.9% to R32.9bn (previous financial year R30.8bn) but recording a 17% drop in taxed profit to R1.48bn…
Minor PGMs will help keep price momentum
SURPRISINGLY, one of the best-performing metal this year is not gold but ruthenium. This is especially relevant for South Africa as it will supply 71% of global primary ruthenium…
Platinum’s full-throated recovery brings downcycle to an end
AFTER several months of positively trending prices, platinum has staged a full-throated rally, gaining 20% in just more than a month and taking sister metal palladium some of the…
Platinum price ranges suggest prelude to a breakout
THE supply deficit forecast for platinum by the World Platinum Investment Council in March had widened further, the organisation said on Monday. Based on first quarter data,…
Has the music stopped for Sibanye-Stillwater?
A MEMORABLE commentary by the ex-CFO of former miner Royal Bafokeng Platinum graphically described in 2021 how the platinum group metals (PGM) market felt like “the early stages…
A counter-consensus argument for PGM prices is beginning to emerge
IT’S been a horrible year for platinum group metals (PGM). Platinum and palladium prices, which comprise 70% to 80% of total South African production, are down 9% and 48% over…