Chromium/Platinum Group Metals – Page 20

Investment billions are at risk in Limpopo – by Allan Seccombe (Business Day – December 11, 2015)

December 11, 2015

http://www.bdlive.co.za/

A MAJOR crisis is brewing in the Steelpoort Valley in Limpopo, where platinum and chrome are mined, putting billions of rand of investments in mines and smelters under threat of suspension or closure.

Chrome and platinum prices have fallen and the production challenge caused by violence is putting an extra strain on the producers of the minerals.

Mining-related businesses there employ 25,000 people and any suspension or closure of mines and smelters there would have potentially crippling consequences.

A Greater Tubatse Municipality document for this year shows unemployment in south-eastern Limpopo soaring from 41% to 56% as the population there grows a projected 34% to 580,000 people.

Sibanye to forge ahead with platinum acquisitions – by Allan Seccombe (Business Day Live – November 30, 2015)

November 30, 2015

http://www.bdlive.co.za/

SHAREHOLDERS in Sibanye Gold and Aquarius Platinum will early next year decide the fate of two large platinum transactions pursued by SA’s largest domestic gold producer.

Sibanye has launched back-to-back bids for the Rustenburg mines owned by Anglo American Platinum and the whole of Aquarius Platinum, which has the Kroondal mine next to the Rustenburg assets as well as the Mimosa joint venture with Impala Platinum in Zimbabwe.

Sibanye was forging ahead with both deals despite a weaker platinum price since they were unveiled in September and October, said CEO Neal Froneman.

Platinum market deficit set to evaporate in 2016: WPIC – by Jan Harvey (Reuters Africa – November 24, 2015)

November 24, 2015

http://af.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – The platinum market deficit will shrink this year, before moving into a small surplus in 2016 as supply from mining and recycling rises and investment falls, the World Platinum Investment Council said in a report on Tuesday.

While the WPIC does not forecast prices, a move back to near-balance could further pressure platinum, which has suffered a 30 percent drop this year, putting it on track for its biggest annual retreat since 2008.

Mine supply, which rose 20 percent this year as output from major producer South Africa normalised after last year’s five-month miners’ strike, is expected to increase another 2 percent in 2016, largely on the back of gains in Zimbabwe, the WPIC said in its Platinum Quarterly report.

End of Russian palladium exports may result in world market shortage – by Eugene Gerden (InvestorIntel.com – November 18, 2015)

November 19, 2015

http://investorintel.com/

Russia may significantly reduce exports of strategic rare earth elements to foreign markets during the next several years, despite the recently announced state plans for a significant expansion of their domestic production.

It is planned that at the initial stage such restrictions will apply to palladium, huge reserves of which were accumulated by the country during the Soviet era, which allowed Russia to become one of its world’s largest exporters of the metal in recent years.

In recent years exports of palladium from the reserves of Russian State Precious Metals and Gems Repository (Gokhran) has been varied in the range of 14-15 tonnes, however there is possibility that they might be completely stopped already starting from 2016.

As Lonmin fights for survival, miners move to cash in and quit – by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo (Reuters U.S. – November 11, 2015)

November 11, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

MARIKANA, South Africa, Nov 11 (Reuters) – As loss-making platinum producer Lonmin appeals for cash from shareholders and slashes costs, many of its mine workers are eager to grab redundancy deals and leave a company battling to stay afloat.

Battered by strikes, rising costs and weak platinum prices, Lonmin is seeking to raise $407 million in a share issue – priced at a 94 percent discount this week – and another $370 million in loans. It says the money is crucial for its survival.

The company, which operates in South Africa, is also closing or mothballing several mine shafts and cutting 6,000 jobs, or 15 percent of its workforce. The cuts, announced in July, were expected to be a hard sell in a country where the jobless rate is over 25 percent and unions have reacted to lay-offs with wildcat strikes in the past.

But so far more than 3,000 staff have left of their own volition, keen to snap up the voluntary redundancy and early retirement packages on offer, and others are seeking to follow.

Lonmin stock discount signals trouble in South African platinum industry – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – November 10, 2015)

November 10, 2015

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

JOHANNESBURG — For the world’s third-biggest platinum producer, it was a stunning admission of its precarious condition. Desperately needing money to stave off collapse, Lonmin PLC announced on Monday that it will issue its latest stock offering at a 94-per-cent discount.

The huge discount, allowing Lonmin to raise the $407-million (U.S.) that it needs to survive, is the latest sign of a major shakeout in South Africa’s troubled platinum sector. But two Canadian platinum companies are still pushing ahead with their South African investments, convinced they can find profits with lower-cost projects.

The platinum industry has been stumbling from crisis to crisis for the past several years. Global platinum prices have dropped by more than 50 per cent since 2011. The industry has been plagued by rising costs and labour unrest in its South African heartland, including a heavily damaging five-month strike in 2014 and the notorious police shooting of 34 protesters at Lonmin’s Marikana mine in 2012.

Chromite tax helped kill Capreol plant: Tories – by Keith Leslie (Canadian Press/Sudbury Star – November 6, 2015)

November 6, 2015

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

TORONTO — Ontario’s Opposition says a Liberal government plan to tax the mineral chromite prompted Cliffs Natural Resources to pull out of the Ring of Fire mining project in the province’s north.

The U.S.-based Cliffs withdrew earlier this year from the Ring of Fire, a region 540 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay that is rich in deposits of copper, nickel, platinum and chromite, which is essential for making stainless steel.

The company, which spent $550 million to buy land in the area, was in negotiations with the Ontario government for a $3.3-billion capital investment to develop the Ring of Fire until it pulled out last spring. It also cancelled a planned $1.8-billion chromite processing facility in Capreol.

Documents released as part of an investigation into cancelled gas plants in the Toronto-area four years ago revealed the province wanted to impose a royalty on chromite mined by Cliffs of between $6.6 million and $34.4 million a year.

[Lonmin Plc] The Rise and Fall of a Mining Company That Tried to Buy Harrods – by Rodney Jefferson and Kevin Crowley(Bloomberg News – November 5, 2015)

November 5, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

From Cecil Rhodes’s legacy in southern Africa to takeover battles gripping the British public and a massacre at one of its mines, the 106-year-old epic that’s Lonmin Plc risks entering its final act.

The company, whose businesses spanned gold mining, hotels, textiles and newspapers in the 1980s, later focused its efforts on platinum and is the world’s third-largest producer of the metal. Management warned on Wednesday that it might have to shut down should shareholders reject a $400 million stock sale as it succumbs to the slump in commodity prices.

Should investors decide not to cough up the money, one of Britain’s most prominent companies of the 20th century and a symbol of the country’s blend of imperialism and capitalism would be consigned to history less than two decades after the death of the man who built it.

“It’s gone from darling of the stock market to completely distraught,” said Bernard Swanepoel, who has been in the mining industry for 30 years and was chief executive officer of Harmony Gold Mining Co.

Lonmin faces collapse if shareholders reject $400 million cash call – by Zandi Shabalala (Reuters U.K. – November 4, 2015)

November 4, 2015

http://uk.reuters.com/

JOHANNESBURG – Lonmin, world’s No.3 platinum miner, urged shareholders to approve a $400 million equity cash call at a meeting next week, saying in a document posted on its website the injection was crucial to its survival.

Lonmin’s shares in London fell 6.8 percent to 23.93 pence by 1223 GMT. The Johannesburg-listed stock was down by 8 percent at 5.00 rand.

Battered by strikes, rising costs and weak platinum prices, Lonmin said last month it planned to raise the money and another $370 million in bank loans to refinance debt due in May 2016.

The firm, founded in 1909 as the London and Rhodesian Mining and Land Company, said that if shareholders do not approve the rights issue at a meeting on Nov. 19, lenders would not provide the loans to push back the maturity of the 2016 debt to 2020.

[Wallbridge Mining] Sudbury junior joint ventures with Lonmin on Sudbury PGM project – by Ella Myers (Northern Ontario Business – November 2, 2015)

November 3, 2015

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North.

Sudbury’s Wallbridge Mining Company started the next phase of exploration on its Parkin Properties in October, with funding from Lonmin. Wallbridge and Lonmin announced their agreement for the project in mid-September. Lonmin will be funding the project up to $11 million, with the potential to earn up to 50 per cent interest. This was an amendment to their existing North Range Joint Venture agreement (NRJV).

Lonmin is currently Wallbridge’s largest shareholder. The start date of Oct. 1 coincides with the beginning of Lonmin’s fiscal year.

Wallbridge initially worked with Impala Platinum Holdings Limited on the Parkin Properties. Josh Bailey, vice-president of exploration, said that in December, Wallbridge opted to purchase Implats’ 49.6 per cent interest in the joint venture by making cash payments over the next five years.

Mining veteran brought in to reboot palladium mine – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – November 2, 2015)

November 2, 2015

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

The last two years at North American Palladium’s Lac des Iles mine, Jim Gallagher has experienced a major company refinancing, an ownership changeover, a management reshuffle, a tailings pond issue, a round of layoffs, and the tragic death of a worker.

As the newly anointed president-CEO, Gallagher is hoping the streak of bad luck has run its course and he can now focus on the positives. “We’re setting the goal of becoming one of the best mines in the world.”

Earlier this year, the Toronto-headquartered miner was struggling under a crushing debt load until Brookfield Capital Partners recapitalized and restructured the company. Gallagher was promoted to the top job last August, replacing Phil du Toit, who resigned.

Zimbabwe: Small Scale Chrome Miners Sing the Blues (All Africa.com – October 29, 2015)

October 29, 2015

http://allafrica.com/

WHEN the ban on chrome ore exports was said to have been lifted in June, miners along the Great Dyke thought their woes would soon be over.

But the joy was short-lived as companies such as the Zimbabwe Iron and Smelting Company (Zimasco) and Zimbabwe Alloys Limited (Zimalloys) among others who collectively own 78 percent of claims along the Great Dyke somewhat refused to relax terms of contracts. The companies still dictate the prices of chrome ore mined by tributary miners.

Most chrome miners especially around Shurugwi have borne the brunt of poverty for many years due to the fact that their short-term contracts can be revoked any time by claim owners even without notice. Life has thus increasingly become difficult.

The Chrome miners have been selling their chrome ore at between US$35 to US$40 per tonne to Chinese nationals who are exploiting them by offering low prices for their ore.

PGMs are the unchallenged metals of future – by Roger Baxter (MiningMx.com – October 26, 2015)

October 26, 2015

http://www.miningmx.com/

Roger Baxter is CEO of the Chamber of Mines of South Africa.

[miningmx.com] – WHILE platinum and its other group metals grapple with current price weaknesses and market difficulties, it can be all-too easy to overlook the metals’ longer-term prospects in this world of rapid technological advance. In my view, platinum group metals (PGMs) are the unchallenged metals of the future.

Let’s start with their contribution to ‘greening’ the environment.

I am not going to comment on the fracas surrounding the Volkswagen’s issue. What I would like to remind everyone of is that – on average and because of PGM catalytic converters – emissions from 100 cars sold in 2015 are the equivalent of one car sold in the 1960s.

PGM vehicle emission catalysts are so successful that they convert 99% of combustion engine pollutants such as HC, CO, NOx and particulates to harmless outputs.

Platinum fails to fill breach left by gold in South Africa – by Ed Stoddard (Reuters U.K. – October 21, 2015)

October 21, 2015

http://uk.reuters.com/

BRITS, South Africa, Oct 21 (Reuters) – When South African miner Papi Soke went from gold to platinum, he thought he was trading a sunset industry for one with a brighter future.

This month, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) shop steward was one of over 800 workers laid off at the Eland platinum mine, closed by Glencore.

“I don’t know what to do now. I am thinking of maybe going to a diamond mine,” the 34-year-old father of two, whose wife is expecting in December, told Reuters as he sipped juice in a mall in the mining town of Brits north of Johannesburg.

Glencore is not alone. Platinum producers Lonmin and Anglo American Platinum are also planning to cut jobs and the government has held meetings with companies and unions to try and prevent widespread lay-offs.

Impala Platinum is closing operations that will affect 1,600 jobs but it has said it hopes to absorb many of those workers elsewhere in its business.

Obama’s ozone rules won’t prove to be platinum’s saviour – by Prinesha Naidoo (Mineweb.com – October 7, 2015)

October 7, 2015

http://www.mineweb.com/

The precious metal’s future remains in the hands of consumers.

JOHANNESBURG – The Obama administration’s move to decrease smog pollution in the United States (US) by tightening federal ozone standards is unlikely to have a material impact on the platinum market.

Citing “extensive scientific evidence” on the effects of ground-level ozone pollution or smog on public health and welfare, the country’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reduced the amount of ground-level ozone to 70 parts per billion (ppb) from the 75ppb limit set by the Bush administration in 2008.

Under the new rules, the EPA will give states until 2017 to collate air quality data and devise plans to meet the limits by 2025. However, some areas, depending on the severity of their smog pollution, will have until 2037 to meet the standards.

In anticipation of tighter ozone regulations, the non-profit International Precious Metals Institute (IPMI) ran a public policy advertisement in a Washington newspaper, stating “precious metals help turn dangerous ozone into harmless oxygen” and “platinum group metals provide the critical spark that makes catalytic converters work to reduce smog and harmful emissions.”