IMPALA Platinum (Implats) suspended production at its Rustenburg shafts on Friday for five days in order to conduct a “safety reset” following two underground fatalities this month.
Rustenburg comprised just over a third of Implats’ refined platinum group metal (PGM) production in the group’s 2025 financial year. For the 2026 financial year ended June 30, Rustenburg is expected to produce between 1.67 and 1.76 million 6E oz.
Implats said in an announcement on Monday that the stoppage – between July 24 and 28 – will affect eight production days in total (until July 30). The impact on tons mined and concentrate extracted will be communicated after the shutdown, Implats said. The hit on production will fall in Implats’ 2027 financial year.
Sales would not be impacted as Implats would draw from surface stockpiles. As the stoppage was early in the financial year, Implats would be able to easily catch-up, said René Hochreiter, an analyst for Noah Capital “Use it as a buying opportunity,” he said. Implats is due to report its annual numbers on September 3 which Hochreiter said would be “excellent”.
Implats reported four fatal injuries in its 2026 financial year including one fall of ground, one related to rigging, and the balance in motor vehicle and tramming (underground loco) incidents. “Subsequently we have regrettably recorded two underground fatal incidents in July 2026, both tramming related,” said Johan Theron, spokesman for Implats.
Thirteen miners lost their lives in a hoisting accident at 11 Shaft in the Rustenburg complex in November 2023. A further 73 people were injured in the incident, in which a conveyance cage carrying 86 miners to the surface suffered a mechanical failure. Nico Muller, CEO of Implats, described the accident at the time as “the darkest day” in the company’s then 57-year history of operation.
“When our people return to work, they will do so with the assurance that all rail-bound equipment has been thoroughly re-assessed and re-verified,” said Moses Motlhageng, CEO of Implats Rustenburg of this week’s shutdown. “No production target or operational objective is more important than the wellbeing of our people,” he said.
There have been 30 fatal accidents in South Africa’s mining sector so far this year, an 11% year-on-year increase on 2025, according to Minerals Council South Africa data. Of the deaths this year, 13 have been in the platinum sector – four more than at the same stage last year – and more than in gold (11), which is unusual.
