VALTERRA Platinum followed up a special dividend at its year-end results in February with another handsome payout saying on Wednesday it would dish out 70% of interim earnings, equal to R15.1bn.
Earnings for the six months at R82,02 per share were the third highest in Valterra’s history (previously Anglo Platinum) and were owing to an 85% year-on-year improvement in metal prices, which have since cooled.
Shareholders will receive an interim base dividend of R32.50 per share, equal to R8.6bn, representing 40% of headline earnings in terms of the firm’s dividend policy. But it will also pay an additional dividend of R6.5bn or R24.50 per share.
This makes for a total dividend of R57/share.
The realised platinum group metal (PGM) dollar price for the six months came in at $2,801 per PGM ounce (or R45,993, an increase of 66%). But the numbers were also assisted by an 18% increase in refined metal sales of 1,74 million oz, itself a function of increased refined production, up a quarter.
Valterra pushed out furnace maintenance to the third quarter, partly to benefit from electricity savings, but higher refined output was also a function of increased concentrate production. Valterra’s Amandelbult mine in Limpopo province continued to recover from stoppages suffered in 2025 floods as a result of torrential rains in the first quarter.
Cash operating costs of R20,677 per PGM ounce were flat year-on-year, but there is cost pressure for the second half of the financial year owing to disruption caused by the Middle East hostilities involving the US and Iran. All-in sustaining costs, including expansion capital, fell by 21% to $996 per 3E ounce.
Valterra said it had maintained AISC guidance for 2026 at $1,050/oz. “We have seen some inflationary impact in the first half — about R250m — and we’ve also assumed an oil price of around $90 a barrel for the second half within that $1,050 guidance,” said Sayurie Naidoo, CFO of Valterra in an interview.
“But based on the cost-cutting initiatives we’ve embarked on, as well as efficiencies in the business, we’ll be able to offset some of that inflation,” said Naidoo. She cited renewable energy cost savings as one initiative.
Valterra also expects to collect another R1.5bn in savings by 2027 as it terminates “transitional services” provided in terms of the demerger from Anglo American in 2025. Some R1bn in savings had been delivered from the demerger to date.
Prices
Platinum and palladium prices have weakened 20% and 21% respectively this year as investment demand in the metals shifts to the dollar amid expectations of rate increases. But Valterra says full-year revenues will still be higher year-on-year.
“You’d exit with a weaker basket versus first half earnings,” said Naidoo. There is also a step-up in capex in the second half of the year, therefore cash flow will be “a little lower” than interim free cash flow of R25.5bn (2025: outflow of R4.6bn).
In general terms, however, the PGM basket has improved and changed significantly owing to the increased role of minor metals such as ruthenium and iridium, which are being increasingly sought by industrial users in AI rollout, such as data centres. “Every single PGM price was materially higher than where we were in 2021 – particularly iridium, ruthenium and rhodium,” said Craig Miller, CEO of Valterra.
“It’s been a much more evenly distributed re-rating of PGM prices, as opposed to just the $30,000 rhodium price we had back in 2021. I think that broadly reflects the underlying uses and demand for PGMs,” he said.
Chrome
One aspect of Amandelbult’s recovery has been an increase in its chrome yield to about 18% in the six months. But there are plans afoot, still to be detailed to the market, to significantly lift Valterra as a chrome producer, said Miller.
“We’re pretty well advanced on our plans, both at Mogalakwena and the potential at Mototolo,” said Miller. “We’re just completing the process of dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s — and we think we’ll be able to give a proper update at the end of the year.”
Sibanye-Stillwater said in June it planned to become a top five chrome producer globally through the extension of its South African PGM resources. It has targeted 4.5 million tons in chrome production by the turn of the decade – a doubling.
