Sibanye Gold Contemplating Move into Platinum Sector

South Africa’s biggest gold producer, Sibanye Gold, is seriously considering breaking into the platinum sector. And with the way things are going, the company will do so by the end of the year.  

Sibanye, which has repeatedly hinted at the possibility, will likely acquire mines from Anglo American Platinum which recently put its strike-hurt mines in South Africa up for sale.  

Neal Froneman, Chief Executive of Sibanye Gold said the possibility of platinum as a commodity is genuine and believes it could happen as soon as the end of this year.

“We are positive and bullish about platinum as a commodity and the supply and demand fundamentals,” said Froneman.

“We have done a lot of analysis and there are a couple of shortlisted opportunities that we continue to work on. I would be disappointed if we haven’t done something material in platinum by the end of the year.”

Likely suitors for the company could be Amplat and Anglo American, which has implied in the past it would like to exit its struggling operations in Rustenburg. The mine has been hit hard with the closure of two shafts and lay-offs of more than 5,000 employees.

“There are good quality assets in the platinum sector, including Rustenburg,” said Froneman.

The introduction into the platinum sector shouldn’t be a difficult one. There are strong similarities in the production of gold and platinum as both involve deep-level, labor intensive mining.