Platinum truly needs a friendly ear in Pretoria
Strategic options for miners have been reduced to: rationalise,close or consolidate
Enjoying a hearty breakfast with our new minister last week, it was not difficult to conclude that Gwede Mantashe has very strong views. In conversation, he made it clear that he does not consider the platinum industry to be in crisis and, by the way, Northam put the shaft in the wrong place! I nearly choked on my sausage. Mantashe has 31 years of experience in the mining industry and is a straight talker. His views are to be respected, and he speaks from the heart, albeit from a strong political standpoint. The minister understands the gold mining industry and how the dollar price of gold relates to the success or otherwise of gold companies. However, gold is not platinum. There are very significant structural differences. Platinum companies produce a basket of metals including palladium, rhodium, gold, base metals and, of course, platinum. The rand basket price that we receive for all our metals on a weighted basis is the true measure of revenue. In nominal terms, the basket price...
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