NORTHAM Platinum was the latest company to declare force majeure, according to a report by BusinessLive.
The Johannesburg-listed firm told four customers it would be unable to supply platinum group metals (PGMs) although the newspaper said the company was considering limited mining at its mechanised Booysendal operations.
Northam, unlike Sibanye-Stillwater, Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum, the world’s three largest sources of PGMs, does not refine its own metal once the base metals have been removed. All these companies have declared force majeure, stopping regular flows of metal to customers, said BusinessLive.
“These are abnormal circumstances external to us. The force majeure letter is a formality. We are still selling what metals we have, but of course we can’t continue selling,” Leon van Schalkwyk, Northam’s spokesperson, told BusinessLive.
Northam was in talks with unions and its workforce at the highly mechanised Booysendal operations in Limpopo about potentially restarting the shallow shafts and concentrators on a reduced throughput basis, but this was likely to be later in April after the Easter break.
Meanwhile, at its Zondereinde processing complex, it is treating stockpiled concentrate, running it through a single furnace, using a staff of about 15 people per shift, which made it easier to keep distances between people to prevent the transmission of the virus as well as ensure they were adequately supplied with protective gear and sanitisers, said BusinessLive.
