Platinum

Platinum juniors and explorers are getting battered by current volatile market conditions with Wesizwe Platinum and Platinum Group Metals amongst the worst affected.

Northam Platinum says it has halted production at its Zondereinde mine in Rustenburg after two miners were killed, the latest in a spate of accidents.

Shares in Aquarius Platinum, the world's fourth-largest platinum producer, have risen more than 15% following the company's reassurances that it had a say in how it improved safety at its mines.

The Department of Mineral Resources has backed away from its draconian safety directive to Aquarius Platinum which will continue standard mechanised mining operations while striving for better safety.

Shares in Aquarius Platinum dropped sharply in early trading on the JSE on Monday morning in response to the stringent safety directive slapped on the company by the Department of Mineral Resources.

The Department of Mineral Resources has imposed tough new restrictions on mechanised platinum mines just hours after the chief inspector of mines said this was not on the cards.

Mining group Aquarius Platinum says its subsidiary Aquarius Platinum has received an instruction that all mechanised bord-and-pillar mines in the North West region are to revise their mine Codes of Practice.

There are concerns the Department of Mineral Resources is about to impose strict new standards on mechanised platinum mines but this is denied by chief inspector of mines Thabo Gazi.

Northam Platinum is looking at a JV with Jubilee Platinum which would utilise Jubilee's revolutionary ConRoast smelting technology to treat platinum concentrates from Northam's Booysendal mine.

Northam Platinum and Jubilee Platinum have agreed to explore development of a 'ConRoast' facility in the first step to developing another source of furnace capacity in South Africa's platinum industry.