{"id":16003,"date":"2012-10-30T20:15:12","date_gmt":"2012-10-30T18:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/10\/factbox-a-look-at-south-african-platinum-production\/"},"modified":"2012-10-30T20:15:12","modified_gmt":"2012-10-30T18:15:12","slug":"factbox-a-look-at-south-african-platinum-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/factbox-a-look-at-south-african-platinum-production\/","title":{"rendered":"FACTBOX- A look at South African platinum production"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

Oct 30 (Reuters) – Here is a look at platinum production in
\nSouth Africa as strike-hit South African miner Lonmin,
\nthe world’s third-largest platinum producer, plans to raise $800
\nmillion from its investors to help slash debt.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

* Supply and demand – In 2011 supplies of platinum from
\nSouth Africa were a total of 4.855 million ounces – an increase
\nof 5 percent or some 220,000 ounces, accounting for 75 percent
\nof the global total. Given net global demand of 6.05 million
\nounces, the platinum market was in a surplus of 430,000 ounces
\nlast year.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

* The increase in South African output was due to the
\nrelease of metal from in-process and refined inventories, with
\nat least 250,000 ounces of platinum supplied from South Africa
\ncoming from above-ground stocks.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

* Underlying mine output actually fell by 3 percent or
\naround 120,000 ounces in 2011, a year that was supposed to show
\na rise in production. Safety stoppages were the main cause and
\nillegal stoppages added to industry troubles. In 2012 South
\nAfrica was gripped by its worst labour unrest in decades
\nfollowing a violent strike that broke out at Lonmin’s Marikana
\nmine in August.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

* South African platinum miners Amplats, Impala Platinum
\nand Lonmin were under pressure even before the wave of strikes
\nin 2012, hit by rising labour and power costs and the expense of
\nsafety stoppages that were part of a government clampdown on
\nfatalities. They have also been hammered by a steep drop in the
\nprice of platinum, down about a third from its record high in
\n2008.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

* Platinum’s sharp price drop has come as a result of
\nfalling demand for the metal, which is chiefly consumed by the
\nautomotive sector for use in catalytic converters. It is
\nparticularly heavily exposed to the beleaguered European car
\nmarket, which has a higher concentration of diesel cars – which
\nuse a higher loading of platinum than petrol engines – than the
\nUnited States or China. This has seen a significant decline.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Sources: Reuters\/Johnson Matthey Platinum 2012
\n(Reporting by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)<\/p>\n

(Editing by Keiron Henderson)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oct 30 (Reuters) – Here is a look at platinum production in South Africa as strike-hit South African miner Lonmin, the world’s third-largest platinum producer, plans to raise $800 million from its investors to help slash debt. * Supply and demand – In 2011 supplies of platinum from South Africa were a total of 4.855 […]<\/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-16003","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\/16003","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=16003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16003\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}