JOHANNESBURG Feb 13 (Reuters) – The chief executive
of Anglo American Platinum, the world’s top platinum
producer, said on Monday that a spike in safety stops that
accelerated last year had slowed since the start of 2012 but had
not abated.
“We’ve had significantly fewer stops,” Neville Nicolau told
Reuters when asked to give a comparison between the first few
weeks of this quarter and the previous one.
Amplats had 81 government-enforced safety stops in 2011,
over double the number the year before, and the company has
joined a chorus of industry criticism about the blanket nature
of the actions, which have expanded to include the closure of
entire mines instead of localized operations.
The rise in stoppages was a key reason behind Amplats’
failure last year to meet its initial production target of 2.7
million ounces. It produced just over 2.5 million and is
targeting 2.5 to 2.6 million ounces this year.
Amplats produces over a third of global platinum supplies
and the surge in stoppages across the industry in South Africa
is one of the factors behind a 17 percent increase in the spot
platinum price so far this calendar year.
(Reporting by Ed Stoddard and Sherilee Lakmidas)
© Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved
