{"id":10901,"date":"2012-05-30T22:24:21","date_gmt":"2012-05-30T20:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/05\/update-1-eastplats-suspends-funding-for-two-s-africa-projects\/"},"modified":"2012-05-30T22:24:21","modified_gmt":"2012-05-30T20:24:21","slug":"update-1-eastplats-suspends-funding-for-two-s-africa-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/update-1-eastplats-suspends-funding-for-two-s-africa-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE 1-Eastplats suspends funding for two S.Africa projects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocatio\/spann\">May 30 (Reuters) &#8211; Eastern Platinum Ltd suspended<br \/>\nfunding for its Mareesburg mine and Kennedy&#8217;s Vale concentrator<br \/>\nplant in South Africa due to the operating environment in the<br \/>\ncountry and the global slowdown, sending its shares down 16<br \/>\npercent.<span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>A recovery in price of platinum group metals (PGM) is<br \/>\nunlikely in the near term due to volatility in the European<br \/>\nmarkets, which consume about 50 percent of South Africa&#8217;s<br \/>\nplatinum production, the company said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Platinum prices fell to their lowest since mid-January on<br \/>\nWednesday at $1,395.35 an ounce as the dollar extended gains<br \/>\nagainst the euro.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Spot platinum was down 2 percent at $1,396.25 an<br \/>\nounce.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>High costs, unfavorable currency exchange rates, weak<br \/>\nchrome prices and labor unrest are also weighing on the South<br \/>\nAfrican PGM industry, the company said.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Eastplats, which produces platinum group metals such as<br \/>\nplatinum, palladium and rhodium, said in March PGM ounces sold<br \/>\nfell 39 percent to 19,854 in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Vancouver, British Columbia-based company has assets on<br \/>\nthe western and eastern limbs of the Bushveld Complex in South<br \/>\nAfrica, which holds about 80 percent of the world&#8217;s platinum,<br \/>\naccording to its website.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Shares of Eastern Platinum, which have lost half of their<br \/>\nvalue in the last three months, fell as much as 16 percent to<br \/>\ntouch a low of  23.5 Canadian cents on Wednesday on the Toronto<br \/>\nStock Exchange.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright\">\n<p>         \t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>May 30 (Reuters) &#8211; Eastern Platinum Ltd suspended funding for its Mareesburg mine and Kennedy&#8217;s Vale concentrator plant in South Africa due to the operating environment in the country and the global slowdown, sending its shares down 16 percent. A recovery in price of platinum group metals (PGM) is unlikely in the near term due [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-10901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10901\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}