Looking to avoid platinum industry job cuts
Platinum mining companies are having to take painful decisions to make operations resilient in the face of low prices, regulatory uncertainty, labour and community protests and an unclear demand outlook
In mid-July, CEOs of platinum companies in the Platinum Leadership Forum met mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane behind closed doors. It sparked fears that they were there to warn of more retrenchments to come. But Northam CEO Paul Dunne says the CEOs wanted to ensure that Zwane understood the difficulties the industry was experiencing and were "forthright" in making their case. "We talked about what government, industry and labour can do. For example, we have been working for some time to persuade government to adopt a platinum Krugerrand. Through the World Platinum Investment Council we have achieved one in Austria and are working on a platinum Eagle in the US and platinum coins in the UK." Griffith says the CEOs also believe there is a case for the Reserve Bank to hold platinum as part of its reserve currency. "We feel the minister should be knocking on the door of treasury to make the case for the sake of the platinum industry," he says. The CEOs want regulators to ensure...
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