ANGLO American is seeking a buyer for its Rustenburg platinum mines as the group looks elsewhere to extract the metal, CEO Mark Cutifani said on Friday. In a BusinessDay TV interview with editor Peter Bruce, Mr Cutifani said the skills within Anglo could be better deployed elsewhere than the deep-level, labour-intensive and technically complex mines that make up Rustenburg.
The mines under consideration are operated by Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), an 80% held Anglo subsidiary. Mr Cutifani has indicated before that Rustenburg was no longer a core asset, but this was the first time he has been explicit about wanting another party to own the mines.
His comments have a deeper resonance as a strike at the mines enters a third month. “The Rustenburg resource is not what it used to be,” Mr Cutifani said. “I don’t think that’s where our best skills set sits.
“That’s why I’ve been quite vocal saying we should consider taking a step back from Rustenburg. We should be focusing on the more mechanised operations, which is what I think we do much better, and allow someone who has a better skills set in those types of mines to run those kinds of assets,” he said.
This focus in Amplats is likely to shift to the Mogalakwena mine in Limpopo.
It is a large opencast operation, which can be expanded to 420,000oz of platinum from its current output of 330,000oz.
Mogalakwena could be taken to 600,000oz in the future, replacing the output that Amplats would lose from selling its Rustenburg mines.
Sibanye Gold, the company formed after Gold Fields unbundled its three deep gold mines in South Africa, has said it is interested in Amplats’ mines.
Mr Cutifani said: “We can in an appropriate way, with the support of key players, hand across a Rustenburg with commercial conditions pending in a way that is constructive, appropriate and does the right thing by the people of Rustenburg.
“How we do that is obviously the trick,” he added.
Amplats, Impala Platinum and Lonmin, the world’s three largest platinum producers, have lost R12.6bn in revenue to the strike and workers have forfeited wages of R5.6bn.
The strike shows no signs of ending, with the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) demanding R12,500 a month for a basic, entry level salary over four years, representing a 30% increase.
Companies are offering 9%, 8.5% and 7% a year increases.
Mr Cutifani said: “The platinum strike is about taking a stand, being a leader and making sure people understand what we need to do to be successful. If it means we have to strike then we’ll take a strike.”
He told Business Day in February that Amcu was not listening to the warnings from the platinum companies that the bulk of their mines were unprofitable.
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