NORTHAM Platinum lifted chrome production 17% in its 2026 financial year, partly owing to the ramp-up of its North West province operation, Eland Platinum.
Crews were doubled at Eland to 50, while ventilation was also reorganised to allow for multi-blast mining. Eland also processed surplus ore from Zondereinde, its oldest mine, as Zondereinde’s concentrator reached capacity during the year.
The outcome was a 49.5% surge in chrome from Eland to 308,831 tons. Northam’s group-wide chrome output was 1.69 million tons.
Chrome is increasingly being viewed as an important by-product – and revenue diversifier – for platinum group metal miners amid price volatility this year. The platinum group metal basket price is about 40% down from a January peak of roughly $2,900 per ounce.
There are plans afoot to cap chrome exports, however, in terms of the South African government’s proposed industrial policy. It wants more chrome to be smelted into ferrochrome. The Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources has said, though, that the policy remains a proposal rather than an undertaking.
All in all, the financial year ended June 2026 represented a strong operational performance for Northam. Total equivalent refined PGM output from Northam’s own mines rose 4.4% to 938,754 ounces.
The company also bought more third-party metal, increasing 24.4% to a record 158,138 oz. Combined, total metal sold reached a record 1.09 million oz – up 8% year-on-year. (The company breached a million oz in production in 2025, realising a long-term goal of its CEO, Paul Dunne.)
The group has forecast higher tonnages and grades over the next two years as growth projects are completed. Set against this, global primary PGM and chrome supply is likely to keep shrinking well into the next decade, given the long lead times required to bring new mines into production.
“Northam’s view remains that primary supply will continue to decline unabated well into the next decade, due to the extended lead times for developing new mines, exacerbated by periodic fluctuations in PGM basket pricing,” it said in its production update.
Analysts believe current share price weakness among the major PGM producers is temporary, even after a cooling in prices – itself largely a function of a decline in platinum ETF investment. Platinum ETF holdings are down about 574,000 oz from their January peak, and Nymex holdings (a futures market) are 288,000 oz lower.
James Steel, an analyst for HSBC, forecasts a 2026 supply/demand deficit of 531,000 oz for platinum, and a price recovery, although he has lowered his average price for the year. Similarly in palladium, he expects supply/demand deficits to “widen modestly this year and next” – although the CME is net short again.
