The resolution was passed at the company’s general meeting, with 99.94% of votes cast in favor.

The demerger is expected to become effective on May 31, subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain conditions.

Amplats, the world’s leading producer of platinum group metals (PGM) by volume, will be separated from Anglo American as the parent company refocuses on energy transition metals like copper and iron ore.

Amplats, which proposed changing its name to Valterra Platinum in March, will retain its primary listing in Johannesburg, with a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange.

The share consolidation is set to take effect on June 1, with the ratio to be announced on May 20.

(By Aatrayee Chatterjee; Editing by Alan Barona)

While prices of aluminum, zinc, and copper have given up the heady gains of 2024, the 71-year-old tycoon is betting that a simpler structure for the sprawling group and growing demand for critical minerals will add to the allure of his companies even as the specter of a global recession looms.

The overhaul will allow the group to list each of its key businesses: aluminum, oil & gas, power, iron & steel, along with the publicly traded core company Vedanta. The demerger could provide new funding sources and increase financial transparency across the group, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mary Ellen Olson.

“The time for growth is now as demand is strong, supply is tight, and we’re positioned in the right markets,” Agarwal said in a recent video interview from his London home, adding that most of the materials mined by his company are locally consumed. The billionaire said that this makes Vedanta less vulnerable to potential disruptions in global supply chains arising from US President Donald Trump’s tariff measures.

Vedanta is also expanding the gamut of its operations by winning rights to mine critical minerals like nickel, chromium, platinum, and cobalt in India through November auctions. The global demand for these and other metals that are key to energy transition remains high and will give the group the next fillip of growth, Agarwal said.

Middle East and Africa

Agarwal has long dreamed of building an empire that spans continents and competing with the ranks of the world’s largest diversified miners, including Rio Tinto Group and BHP Group Ltd.

The group plans to spend more on overseas projects and is doubling on investments in the Middle East and Africa. Vedanta is set to invest $2 billion in copper-processing facilities in Saudi Arabia — one of the largest by a foreign firm — as the oil kingdom aspires to build its metals and mining industries significantly.

“Saudi not only has good geology but strong local consumption too,” Agarwal said, adding that “funding is never a problem for a project like that.”

According to local government estimates, Saudi Arabia has untapped resources, including phosphate, copper, gold, and bauxite, worth as much as $2.5 trillion. About a third of its investments in the country will be funded through internal accruals, and for the rest, the group will seek project financing, Agarwal said.

The company is currently seeking funds to develop mines in Africa, too. The Konkola Copper Mines in Zambia, which it controls, has a major copper deposit and cobalt reserves, according to Vedanta.

The financing options being weighed range from a billion-dollar bond offering, “off-take financing, or sale of a minority stake to global investors, for which there is significant demand,” Agarwal said.

Cutting debt

Vedanta shares dropped about 7% this year in Mumbai trading amid a slump in commodities prices. Other than economic growth woes, weighing on investor sentiment is the company’s $6.2 billion debt, the upshot of an acquisition spree since the turn of the century that includes stakes in Bharat Aluminium Co. and Hindustan Zinc Ltd.

Over the last two years, Agarwal has been on a drive to cut leverage and push back repayment deadlines on the group’s borrowings. The plan is to halve it over the next three years.

The group will be cautious about loading up on debt as it chases growth for each demerged unit, he said. All existing shareholders of Vedanta will receive one new share in each of the newly listed entities against each share they own in the parent company.

“There is no need for a stake sale to reduce our debt at the parent company level, and neither are there any plans to sell our stakes in any of the demerged entities,” Agarwal, who started as a scrap metal dealer and has weathered cash crunches and government friction, said. Each listed company can look at issuing fresh shares to raise funds for expansion, he said.

The so-called debt to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization ratio — a financial metric that measures a company’s ability to pay off its debt obligations — for Vedanta has to be brought down to 1 from the current 1.4 and maintained, according to him.

Over the years, Agarwal has been grooming his daughter Priya Agarwal Hebbar to take over from him as the head of the conglomerate. A psychology and film studies graduate from the University of Warwick, the 35-year-old is the chairwoman of Hindustan Zinc and is on the board of Vedanta.

“The group’s future is very focused on transition and critical minerals, and that is where the company will go,” Hebbar said.

(By Anto Antony)

Two weeks into the second quarter, the MINING.COM TOP 50* ranking of the world’s most valuable miners had a combined market capitalization of $1.36 trillion, up $79.7 billion so far in 2025.

The total stock market valuation of the world’s biggest mining companies remains almost $400 billion below the peak hit in the second quarter of 2022.

This snapshot was taken at the close of trading on 17 April and not at the start of Q2 as usual to avoid some of the market distortions brought on by the chaotic weeks following Trump’s on-again off-again tariffs.

This flatters the index to some extent as gold stocks rode the coattails of the record setting bullion price and almost all big names regained some ground after the severe sell-off during the first week of April.

Newcomers

The volatile trading saw the greatest number of new entries – six in all – in a quarter since MINING.COM started tracking the Top 50 six years ago. From $6.7 billion at the end of 2024, the lowest ranked entry must now be worth $8 billion.

Mining and metals arguably suffered some of the biggest swings and roundabouts as the economic effects of a trade war and the focus on critical minerals played havoc – exemplified by the volatility on copper markets.

The bellwether metal hit a record high in the US at the end of March, only to plunge more than 20% over the next week and a half and then make up a big chunk of those losses going into the long weekend.

Amid the hectic trading, copper producers and diversified companies with large base metal portfolios lost a combined $53 billion to April 17 and are now trading $205 billion below their collective peak end-Sep 2024 as the sector’s ranks thin.

Lundin Mining dropped out of the Top 50 during Q1 following another copper counter, Poland’s KGHM, which did not make the cut off in Q4 last year. Q1 was a mixed blessing for the Canadian mining empire with the copper producer making way for Lundin Gold, entering the Top 50 for the first time after doubling in value in USD terms to $10.1 billion in Toronto.

Huayou Cobalt’s inclusion proved to be short-lived while South32 failed to make the cut for the first time since being spun out of BHP a decade ago. The base metals sans copper producer sits at position 51 after being narrowly edged out by Shanjin International Gold, so the stock may well return if (and not necessarily when) profit-taking in gold and gold stocks starts to make sense.

Another notable mover of 2025 is Amman Mineral, the worst performer in the index which lost over $10 billion in value as reality about its piercing run since its debut in Jakarta early 2023 continues to set in. The Indonesian copper-gold company is now worth an eye-catching $20 billion less than its high point at the end of Q2 last year, even after investors ran up the stock more than 20% just in the last week.

Nothing counters gold

While the direction of the copper price over the last few months was almost impossible to judge, gold’s record breaking run looked inevitable. At $3,420 per ounce gold at the time of writing, the yellow metal has now finally also surpassed its 1980 peak in inflation-adjusted terms.

Unsurprisingly, precious metals counters dominate the best performer list and make up the majority of new entrants. Gold, silver and PGM miners and royalty companies now represent a third of the value of the Top 50. The strength in precious metals has also seen Canada overtake Australia for the first time in terms of the value of miners headquartered there.

At 22% of the index, the 13 Canadian companies collectively are worth a smidgen under $300 billion compared to $275 billion for the now eight Australian firms with the inclusion for the first time of Sydney-based gold stock Evolution Mining. In their current form Melbourne-based BHP and Rio Tinto have been the top two global mining stocks since the turn of the century, together worth $220 billion today.

The MINING.COM Top 50 tracks stock value in USD terms not share price gains on local exchange and many stocks in the ranking benefitted from strengthening currencies against the USD.

South Africa’s Harmony Gold tops the gainers after jumping 24 spots to enter the ranking at no 37 following a 117% advance since end-2024. Like Harmony, Goldfields also benefited from the strong rand against the greenback, lifting the Johannesburg-based company’s shares by 83% year to date.

Russia’s Polyus, which added $14.4 billion in Q1, was only beaten by the top two gold stocks Newmont and Agnico Eagle which added $18.6 billion and $19.9 billion year to date in market cap gains. The ruble has strengthened by 20% against the US dollar in 2025 and Norilsk Nickel, thanks to captive investors on the MCX, has maintained its good standing in the Top 50 despite sanctions and trading restrictions. Norilsk is still worth north of $20 billion but still a far cry from its peak position as the world’s number 5 most valuable mining company reached mid-2021.

London-listed Fresnillo returns to the index after years in the wilderness thanks to a 74% surge in value for the Mexican silver and gold miner, majority owned by Mexican industrial group Peñoles. Together with Southern Copper, owned by Grupo Mexico, the country now represents nearly 6% of the value of the Top 50.

Gold counters are likely to only increase in number and size over the rest of 2025. Kazatomprom dual-listed in London and Astana in 2018, and Uzbekistan is now readying an IPO for Navoi Mining and Metallurgy Combinat – the world’s fourth largest gold mining company and significant uranium producer later this year.

Rare earth representation

China Northern Rare Earth is the only producer of the 17 elements in the ranking and despite the frenzy surrounding the sector as China tightens control. There are no obvious REE candidates that could join the Top 50 in short order.

MP Materials, which operates the Mountain Pass mine in California, has surged by 69% in value year to date but the Las Vegas-based company is still worth only $4.3 billion.

The company’s valuation peaked above $8 billion in March 2022, but the whole mining industry was riding high at the time and the high price ticket for entry at the time meant it fell just outside the ranking. Australia’s Lynas Rare Earths have also come close in the past and is up 26% this year for a valuation of $5.3 billion.

Lithium down to a single stock

Lithium’s representation in the ranking is down from six companies to a single stock – Chile’s SQM languishing in position 42 and worth less than $10 billion – following the exit of China’s Tianqi and US-based Albemarle during the quarter, with the latter dropping by 38% in 2025.

The value destruction caused by the slump in lithium prices has been nothing short of astonishing. Lithium stocks in the index peaked in the second quarter of 2022 with a combined value of nearly $120 billion.

While Albemarle now worth $6.2 billion may well make a comeback (the longer term prospects for lithium demand remains bright), the absorption of Arcadium by Rio Tinto makes it unlikely that the Top 50 will see a rush of lithium stocks any time soon, a rebound of the commodity notwithstanding.

Zangge Mining, which does derive a good proportion of income from lithium, but is mostly a fertilizer producer, is bubbling under at number 53. The Chinese company may not stick around either – it’s the subject of takeover overtures by Zijing Mining, which also helps explain the 25% rise in the stock on the Shenzen exchange in USD terms.

Notes:

Source: MINING.COM, stock exchange data, company reports. Share data from primary-listed exchange at close April 17/18, 2025 close of trading converted to US$ where applicable. Percentage change based on US$ market cap difference, not share price change in local currency.

As with any ranking, criteria for inclusion are contentious. We decided to exclude unlisted and state-owned enterprises at the outset due to a lack of information. That, of course, excludes giants like Chile’s Codelco, Uzbekistan’s Navoi Mining (the gold and uranium giant may list later this year), Eurochem, a major potash firm, and a number of entities in China and developing countries around the world.

Another central criterion was the depth of involvement in the industry, and how far upstream is the bulk of its revenue, before an enterprise can rightfully be called a mining company.

For instance, should smelter companies or commodity traders that own minority stakes in mining assets be included, especially if these investments have no operational component or even warrant a seat on the board?

This is a common structure in Asia and excluding these types of companies removed well-known names like Japan’s Marubeni and Mitsui, Korea Zinc and Chile’s Copec.

Levels of operational or strategic involvement and size of shareholding were other central considerations. Do streaming and royalty companies that receive metals from mining operations without shareholding qualify or are they just specialized financing vehicles? We included Franco Nevada, Royal Gold and Wheaton Precious Metals on the basis of their deep involvement in the industry.

Vertically integrated concerns like Alcoa and energy companies such as Shenhua Energy or Bayan Resources where power, ports and railways make up a large portion of revenues pose a problem. The revenue mix also tends to change alongside volatile coal prices. Same goes for battery makers like China’s CATL which is increasingly moving upstream, but where mining will continue to represent a small portion of its valuation.

Another consideration is diversified companies such as Anglo American with separately listed majority-owned subsidiaries. We’ve included Angloplat in the ranking but excluded Kumba Iron Ore in which Anglo has a 70% stake to avoid double counting. Similarly we excluded Hindustan Zinc which is listed separately but majority owned by Vedanta.

With other groups like Mexico’s Penoles where refining and chemicals make up a substantial part of the business where possible the Top 50 would include separately listed operating subsidiaries that are dedicated to mining. This is also why Southern Copper represents Grupo Mexico in the ranking.

Many steelmakers own and often operate iron ore and other metal mines, but in the interest of balance and diversity we excluded the steel industry, and with that many companies that have substantial mining assets including giants like ArcelorMittal, Magnitogorsk, Ternium, Baosteel and many others.

Head office refers to operational headquarters wherever applicable, for example BHP and Rio Tinto are shown as Melbourne, Australia, but Antofagasta is the exception that proves the rule. We consider the company’s HQ to be in London, where it has been listed since the late 1800s.

Please let us know of any errors, omissions, deletions or additions to the ranking or suggest a different methodology: email Frik Els at fels@mining.com with Top 50 in the subject line.

Two weeks into the second quarter, the MINING.COM TOP 50* ranking of the world’s most valuable miners had a combined market capitalization of $1.36 trillion, up $79.7 billion so far in 2025.

The total stock market valuation of the world’s biggest mining companies remains almost $400 billion below the peak hit in the second quarter of 2022.

This snapshot was taken at the close of trading on April 17 and not at the start of Q2 as usual to avoid some of the market distortions brought on by the chaotic weeks following Trump’s on-again off-again tariffs.

This flatters the index to some extent as gold stocks rode the coattails of the record setting bullion price and almost all big names regained some ground after the severe sell-off during the first week of April.

Newcomers

The volatile trading saw the greatest number of new entries – six in all – in a quarter since MINING.COM started tracking the Top 50 six years ago. From $6.7 billion at the end of 2024, the lowest ranked entry must now be worth $8 billion.

Mining and metals arguably suffered some of the biggest swings and roundabouts as the economic effects of a trade war and the focus on critical minerals played havoc – exemplified by the volatility on copper markets.

The bellwether metal hit a record high in the US at the end of March, only to plunge more than 20% over the next week and a half and then make up a big chunk of those losses going into the long weekend.

Amid the hectic trading, copper producers and diversified companies with large base metal portfolios lost a combined $53 billion to April 17 and are now trading $205 billion below their collective peak end-Sep 2024 as the sector’s ranks thin.

Lundin Mining dropped out of the Top 50 during Q1 following another copper counter, Poland’s KGHM, which did not make the cut off in Q4 last year. Q1 was a mixed blessing for the Canadian mining empire with the copper producer making way for Lundin Gold, entering the Top 50 for the first time after doubling in value in USD terms to $10.1 billion in Toronto.

Huayou Cobalt’s inclusion proved to be short-lived while South32 failed to make the cut for the first time since being spun out of BHP a decade ago. The base metals sans copper producer sits at position 51 after being narrowly edged out by Shanjin International Gold, so the stock may well return if (and not necessarily when) profit-taking in gold and gold stocks starts to make sense.

Another notable mover of 2025 is Amman Mineral, the worst performer in the index which lost over $10 billion in value as reality about its piercing run since its debut in Jakarta early 2023 continues to set in. The Indonesian copper-gold company is now worth an eye-catching $20 billion less than its high point at the end of Q2 last year, even after investors ran up the stock more than 20% just in the last week.

Nothing counters gold

While the direction of the copper price over the last few months was almost impossible to judge, gold’s record breaking run looked inevitable. At $3,420 per ounce gold at the time of writing, the yellow metal has now finally also surpassed its 1980 peak in inflation-adjusted terms.

Unsurprisingly, precious metals counters dominate the best performer list and make up the majority of new entrants. Gold, silver and PGM miners and royalty companies now represent a third of the value of the Top 50. The strength in precious metals has also seen Canada overtake Australia for the first time in terms of the value of miners headquartered there.

At 22% of the index, the 13 Canadian companies collectively are worth a smidgen under $300 billion compared to $275 billion for the now eight Australian firms with the inclusion for the first time of Sydney-based gold stock Evolution Mining. In their current form Melbourne-based BHP and Rio Tinto have been the top two global mining stocks since the turn of the century, together worth $220 billion today.

The MINING.COM Top 50 tracks stock value in USD terms not share price gains on local exchange and many stocks in the ranking benefitted from strengthening currencies against the USD.

South Africa’s Harmony Gold tops the gainers after jumping 24 spots to enter the ranking at no 37 following a 117% advance since end-2024. Like Harmony, Goldfields also benefited from the strong rand against the greenback, lifting the Johannesburg-based company’s shares by 83% year to date.

Russia’s Polyus, which added $14.4 billion in Q1, was only beaten by the top two gold stocks Newmont and Agnico Eagle which added $18.6 billion and $19.9 billion year to date in market cap gains. The ruble has strengthened by 20% against the US dollar in 2025 and Norilsk Nickel, thanks to captive investors on the MCX, has maintained its good standing in the Top 50 despite sanctions and trading restrictions. Norilsk is still worth north of $20 billion but still a far cry from its peak position as the world’s number 5 most valuable mining company reached mid-2021.

London-listed Fresnillo returns to the index after years in the wilderness thanks to a 74% surge in value for the Mexican silver and gold miner, majority owned by Mexican industrial group Peñoles. Together with Southern Copper, owned by Grupo Mexico, the country now represents nearly 6% of the value of the Top 50.

Gold counters are likely to only increase in number and size over the rest of 2025. Kazatomprom dual-listed in London and Astana in 2018, and Uzbekistan is now readying an IPO for Navoi Mining and Metallurgy Combinat – the world’s fourth largest gold mining company and significant uranium producer later this year.

Rare earth representation

China Northern Rare Earth is the only producer of the 17 elements in the ranking and despite the frenzy surrounding the sector as China tightens control. There are no obvious REE candidates that could join the Top 50 in short order.

MP Materials, which operates the Mountain Pass mine in California, has surged by 69% in value year to date but the Las Vegas-based company is still worth only $4.3 billion.

The company’s valuation peaked above $8 billion in March 2022, but the whole mining industry was riding high at the time and the high price ticket for entry at the time meant it fell just outside the ranking. Australia’s Lynas Rare Earths have also come close in the past and is up 26% this year for a valuation of $5.3 billion.

Lithium down to a single stock

Lithium’s representation in the ranking is down from six companies to a single stock – Chile’s SQM languishing in position 42 and worth less than $10 billion – following the exit of China’s Tianqi and US-based Albemarle during the quarter, with the latter dropping by 38% in 2025.

The value destruction caused by the slump in lithium prices has been nothing short of astonishing. Lithium stocks in the index peaked in the second quarter of 2022 with a combined value of nearly $120 billion.

While Albemarle now worth $6.2 billion may well make a comeback (the longer term prospects for lithium demand remains bright), the absorption of Arcadium by Rio Tinto makes it unlikely that the Top 50 will see a rush of lithium stocks any time soon, a rebound of the commodity notwithstanding.

Zangge Mining, which does derive a good proportion of income from lithium, but is mostly a fertilizer producer, is bubbling under at number 53. The Chinese company may not stick around either – it’s the subject of takeover overtures by Zijing Mining, which also helps explain the 25% rise in the stock on the Shenzen exchange in USD terms.

Notes:

Source: MINING.COM, stock exchange data, company reports. Share data from primary-listed exchange at close April 17/18, 2025 close of trading converted to US$ where applicable. Percentage change based on US$ market cap difference, not share price change in local currency.

As with any ranking, criteria for inclusion are contentious. We decided to exclude unlisted and state-owned enterprises at the outset due to a lack of information. That, of course, excludes giants like Chile’s Codelco, Uzbekistan’s Navoi Mining (the gold and uranium giant may list later this year), Eurochem, a major potash firm, and a number of entities in China and developing countries around the world.

Another central criterion was the depth of involvement in the industry, and how far upstream is the bulk of its revenue, before an enterprise can rightfully be called a mining company.

For instance, should smelter companies or commodity traders that own minority stakes in mining assets be included, especially if these investments have no operational component or even warrant a seat on the board?

This is a common structure in Asia and excluding these types of companies removed well-known names like Japan’s Marubeni and Mitsui, Korea Zinc and Chile’s Copec.

Levels of operational or strategic involvement and size of shareholding were other central considerations. Do streaming and royalty companies that receive metals from mining operations without shareholding qualify or are they just specialized financing vehicles? We included Franco Nevada, Royal Gold and Wheaton Precious Metals on the basis of their deep involvement in the industry.

Vertically integrated concerns like Alcoa and energy companies such as Shenhua Energy or Bayan Resources where power, ports and railways make up a large portion of revenues pose a problem. The revenue mix also tends to change alongside volatile coal prices. Same goes for battery makers like China’s CATL which is increasingly moving upstream, but where mining will continue to represent a small portion of its valuation.

Another consideration is diversified companies such as Anglo American with separately listed majority-owned subsidiaries. We’ve included Angloplat in the ranking but excluded Kumba Iron Ore in which Anglo has a 70% stake to avoid double counting. Similarly we excluded Hindustan Zinc which is listed separately but majority owned by Vedanta.

With other groups like Mexico’s Penoles where refining and chemicals make up a substantial part of the business where possible the Top 50 would include separately listed operating subsidiaries that are dedicated to mining. This is also why Southern Copper represents Grupo Mexico in the ranking.

Many steelmakers own and often operate iron ore and other metal mines, but in the interest of balance and diversity we excluded the steel industry, and with that many companies that have substantial mining assets including giants like ArcelorMittal, Magnitogorsk, Ternium, Baosteel and many others.

Head office refers to operational headquarters wherever applicable, for example BHP and Rio Tinto are shown as Melbourne, Australia, but Antofagasta is the exception that proves the rule. We consider the company’s HQ to be in London, where it has been listed since the late 1800s.

Please let us know of any errors, omissions, deletions or additions to the ranking or suggest a different methodology: email Frik Els at fels@mining.com with Top 50 in the subject line.

The company said it produced 42,000 tons of nickel in the first quarter of 2025, a 1.1% drop from the same period of last year, while palladium production eased 0.6% to 741,000 ounces. Production of platinum rose by 0.6% to 180,000 ounces.

“The modest decline of nickel production was temporary and due to scheduled short-term repairs and maintenance of equipment, aiming to support steady operation of main technological units,” the company’s senior vice president Alexander Popov said in a statement.

Nornickel explained the drop in the nickel production was due to maintenance works at several of its plants.

Nornickel is under pressure domestically from the rouble’s 40% rally against the US dollar, which decreases its revenues, as well as from high interest rates, which affect investment plans.

Internationally, the company is facing falling or stagnating prices for some of its metals due to lower demand amid market turbulence triggered by US President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs.

While Nornickel is not subject to direct Western sanctions, the measures have prompted some Western producers to avoid buying Russian metal, complicated payments, and restricted access to Western equipment.

“We believe that the risk of a global economic slowdown as a result of tariff wars will negatively affect the company’s metals portfolio,” BCS brokerage analysts said in a note.

(By Anastasia Lyrchikova and Gleb Bryanski; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Ros Russell)

The Zimbabwe Mining Development Corp. has asked the Mines Ministry for a resolution to a longstanding dispute with a unit of Amaplat Mauritius Ltd. that is laying claim to the assets, a letter written by the company’s chairman Paul Chimboza to Mines Minister Winston Chitando shows.

Chimboza confirmed the veracity of the letter, which has been seen by Bloomberg, but declined to comment further, referring queries to the ministry.

The $93 million owed by ZMDC is among a litany of creditor woes confronting state entities in Zimbabwe. The government is more than $21 billion in debt and locked out of international capital markets after defaulting on payments owed to institutions including the World Bank and European Investment Bank.

“The corporation has on many occasions requested that the Amari debt be assumed by the state,” Chimboza wrote in reference to ZMDC’s standoff with the Amaplat unit. ZMDC, which the Treasury indicated should address the matter using internal resources, has few assets of its own as they have mostly been transferred to a new state company known as Defold Mine Ltd.

Zimbabwe’s case against Amaplat was heard by the International Chamber of Commerce’s arbitration court in a sitting in Zambia in 2014, and the tribunal ruled in the company’s favor. Zambia’s High Court granted Amaplat leave to enforce the arbitration ruling in 2019.

Two years later, the company made a proposal to the country’s finance ministry for the settlement of the debt, which amounted to $65.9 million at the time. That was acceded to with the understanding that ZMDC would make the payments.

ZMDC suggested that Bravura, a company owned by Nigerian businessman Benedict Peters, pay Amaplat $15 million as part of the agreement. Bravura, which received platinum concessions, however only paid $3 million to the mines ministry, Chimboza said, and the remaining terms of the settlement, including the transfer of mining assets to Amaplat, haven’t been met.

Bravura officials weren’t available for comment, said a person who answered their phone at offices in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare.

“It is not for Amari and Amaplat to determine how the government of Zimbabwe sources funds for payment for its public debt,” Amaplat said in a response to queries. “As the ICC award is against a Zimbabwe government parastatal and the commissioner of a government ministry, the ZMDC and the Chief Mining Commissioner of the Ministry Mines, the public debt remains the responsibility of the government of Zimbabwe for the full amount.”

Secretary for Mines Pfungwa Kunaka said he was traveling and didn’t respond to questions on how the dispute would be handled.

More legal trouble may lie ahead for Zimbabwe as Amaplats plans to register its award in Canada, after doing the same in the US at the end of last year. A hearing in Canada is set for June 30, Chimboza said in the letter.

Zimbabwean diamonds, due to be sold in Brussels, were temporarily seized in relation to the dispute in 2014.

The continuous engagement of external lawyers is costly with more than $500,000 spent by ZMDC and the ministry in engaging legal representation, Chimboza said.

(By Godfrey Marawanyika and Ray Ndlovu)

The support package includes deferring business taxes, including the mining tax, for six months. The province will provide up to C$9 billion in cash flow relief to about 80,000 Ontario businesses by offering six months of interest and penalty relief, allowing them to temporarily delay payments.

This deferral period runs from April 1, 2025, to October 1, 2025. All deferred taxes must be paid in full by the end of that period.

The mining tax is levied on profits from the extraction and sale of mineral substances by operators of Ontario mines.

In addition to the tax relief, the province is issuing a further $2 billion rebate for safe employers to help businesses retain workers. This follows a $2 billion rebate distributed in March.

In a post on X, Premier Doug Ford said the measures aim to support workers and businesses during a time when “President Trump’s tariffs are causing enormous economic uncertainty.”

While Canada was spared the Trump administration’s global tariffs on April 2, it still faces levies on steel and aluminum exports to the US, as well as on autos that do not meet the terms of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

Last month, the federal government announced C$6.5 billion in financial aid to help companies expand into new international markets, mitigate losses, access affordable loans and avoid layoffs.

Ontario ranks among the world’s top 10 jurisdictions for mineral exploration spending and is a leading producer of gold, copper, nickel, and platinum group elements.

In 2023, the province generated C$15.7 billion worth of minerals — representing 26% of Canada’s total mineral production value. Over 40% of Canada’s total gold production by value came from Ontario.

The world’s top producer of platinum group metals (PGM) by volume expects to be hived off parent company Anglo American Plc by June as the global mining giant narrows its focus to energy transition metal copper and iron ore.

Amplats’ proposed new name would be put up to a shareholder vote at its annual general meeting on May 8, the company said in a statement.

The company will retain its primary listing in Johannesburg, with a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange.

(By Nelson Banya; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Read More: Amplats halts operations at South African mine after heavy rains

“My government will set a deadline of six months to green light permits for the Ring of Fire,” Poilievre told reporters in Sudbury on Wednesday. “We will unleash the production of chromite, cobalt, copper, nickel, platinum and others. We will also commit C$1 billion over three years to help the Ontario government build the highway to get there.”

The Ring of Fire area, about 540 km northeast of Thunder Bay, lies in a remote swampy region where only one venture is considered advanced, the Eagle’s Nest project held by Wyloo Metals. It’s owned by Australian tycoon and former Fortescue Metals Group (ASX: FMG) CEO Andrew Forrest.

Roads that are estimated to cost at least C$2 billion to access the region are winding their way through provincial and federal environmental assessments steered by local Indigenous communities. Some First Nations groups with claims in the area oppose development, which could take a decade to implement judging by other projects. Environmentalists say it will release the same global warming gases from the region’s muskeg that the electric-battery vehicle metals it would produce are supposed to limit.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has also said he would accelerate the Ring of Fire project, which has become the mining industry’s focus point for transition metals in the province. Ontario has a slew of other projects also geared to eventually funnel supplies to its C$50-billion-a-year cross-border auto industry that includes Ford, GM, Stellantis, Honda and Toyota.

Single process

Ford and Poilievre want a single environmental process, instead of two levels, to speed projects like Ring of Fire to market. The federal Conservative leader criticized the Liberal government’s Impact Assessment Act passed in 2019 from Bill C-69.

“We’ve known about this place for a long time,” Poilievre said. “The Liberals did everything they could to block this project. They have a ‘keep-it-in-the-ground’ ideology.”

The federal Conservatives and Liberals are tied at 38% support, a poll by the 338Canada project showed on Wednesday. The results mark a dramatic increase in Liberal support under new leader Mark Carney while the leftist NDP has declined to 11%. Carney, who was sworn in as prime minister Friday, has said he will call an election within days. It would likely be held by mid-May. 

In one of his first decisions as PM, Carney has scrapped the Liberal consumer carbon tax – a move Poilievre has long said he would make. The Conservative leader went further on Wednesday saying he would also abolish carbon taxes on industry.

“We will repeal liberal law C-69 and instead grant rapid permission to our companies to build more pipelines, more natural gas exports, more data centres, more mines and more projects of all kind across this country,” Poilievre said. “We will stand up for this economy and our people. We will also repeal the entire carbon tax law on consumers, on industry, for everyone, for good that will protect paychecks and bring production home.”

Ontario projects

Several battery metal projects are progressing in Ontario’s north. This month Ottawa announced C$120 million – to be matched by a similar amount from Queen’s Park – for a new road and bridge to access Frontier Lithium’s (TSXV: FL; US-OTC: LITOF) PAK project.

Canada Nickel (TSXV: CNC: US-OTC: CNIKF) is advancing the Crawford nickel-cobalt sulfide project near Timmins. Crawford, believed to hold the world’s second-largest nickel reserves and resources, hosts 1.72 billion tonnes of proven and probable reserves grading 0.22% nickel, plus copper, palladium, and platinum, according to a 2023 feasibility study. In September, Export Development Canada expressed interest in providing a long-term loan of up to C$500 million to support the project’s development.

Electra Battery Materials (Nasdaq: ELBM; TSXV: ELBM) is upgrading and expanding an existing cobalt refinery near Temiskaming Shores which may become North America’s only refinery producing battery-grade cobalt sulphate. Avalon Advanced Materials (TSX: AVL; US-OTC: AVLNF) is developing the Separation Rapids lithium project, 70 km north of Kenora, for chemicals essential for lithium-ion batteries.

Li-Cycle (NYSE: LICY), a lithium battery recycler, began operations in Ontario in 2019 and ramped up to recycling and processing up to 5,000 tonnes of used lithium-ion batteries per year in 2020. The company focuses on recovering valuable materials like lithium, cobalt, and nickel from spent batteries.

KoBold’s technology centres around the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to accelerate the discovery process of clean energy minerals such as copper, lithium and nickel. To date, the company has raised $1 billion from several funding rounds. A majority of the funds is being used to develop the Mingomba copper project in Zambia.

Under a definitive agreement signed on Wednesday, Aurion will grant KoBold the right to earn a 75% interest in a portion of the Risti project area covering 35 sq. km by spending $12 million on exploration, including $1 million within the first 18 months.

Upon satisfaction of KoBold’s earn-in rights, the parties will form a joint venture on this area, located in the eastern part of the property. Should Aurion’s JV ownership be diluted to below 10%, it would then be converted to a 2% net smelter returns royalty.

Aurion will retain its ownership on other parts of the project where the predominant mineral in discovery is gold or silver, and can continue its exploration activities there as long as it holds ownership interest.

“The agreement with a split commodity structure enables Aurion to retain full exploration and ownership rights over significant gold and silver discoveries while leveraging KoBold’s expertise in exploration for metals and minerals important for the green energy transition,” Aurion CEO Matti Talikka said in a news release.

The Risti property covers 160 sq. km of the Central Lapland greenstone belt, the most prolific gold-producing province in Europe. Its geological setting has drawn comparisons to the Abitibi region of Northern Ontario, which is known for its orogenic gold mineralization as well as other deposit types featuring critical minerals.

Aurion noted that the base metal prospectivity of the region is well evidenced by the Kevitsa nickel-copper-PGE mine (Boliden) and the Sakatti nickel-copper-PGE discovery (Anglo American) located 12 km from the Risti property.

Coronation, the country’s third-biggest private fund manager with about 667 billion rand ($37 billion) in assets, is buying stocks in beaten-down platinum miners even as it reduces holdings of the metal itself, according to Nicholas Hops, who runs the Coronation Resources Fund with Nicholas Stein.

The Cape Town-based firm has added shares of Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. and Northam Platinum Holdings Ltd. in recent months, betting that demand for the metal, used in exhaust systems of internal-combustion engines, will remain robust, Hops said in an interview. While both stocks have rallied this year, they still offer value after years of decline, he said.

EV sales are still rising globally, but the rate of growth is slowing as China’s economy continues to struggle, while the subsidies and tax breaks that helped drive sales are drying up in Europe and the US. Global passenger EV sales rose 24% in 2024, down from 33% the previous year and more than 100% in 2021, according to BloombergNEF.

“We’re still heading toward battery electric vehicles being a dominant player in the global automotive market but perhaps the ramp up is a little bit longer that one might have once expected,” Hops said in an interview. That’s “extending the useful lives of precious metal-containing vehicles,” he said.

The firm has increased the weighting of Impala Platinum in its Resources Fund to 7.8% from zero, and raised Northam Platinum to 10.6% from 9.6%. Impala has gained 32% this year and Northam is up 25%. Still, both stocks remain well below their 2021 peaks.

“The selloff in platinum equities over a two- to three-year period was so big, that we decided by the latter part of last year that the stocks started to offer a lot of value again,” Hops said.

Coronation’s 1.4 billion rand Resources Fund has delivered an annualized return of 27% over the past five years, compared with 20% for the benchmark and 23% for peers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The firm reduced its holdings of platinum metal last year, as the risk-reward favored the equities, Hops said. Platinum stocks have since outperformed the 10% rise in the metal’s price this year.

With the platinum market seen remaining in deficit in 2025 for a third consecutive year, according to the World Platinum Investment Council, demand for the metal will remain robust.

In addition, North American producers including Sibanye Stillwater Ltd. are restructuring their mines and cutting output of platinum-group metals, which will also favor local producers, Hops said.

(By Khuleko Siwele)

The company has sent notices to employees who are likely to be affected, people with knowledge of the matter said, asking not to be identified because Anglo hasn’t made a public announcement.

The job cuts are in line with the company’s disposals and other restructuring plans, Anglo said in response to queries. Consultations have just begun and the minerals producer has yet to determine the number of people affected, it said.

Anglo began restructuring the business last year after it had to fend off a $43 billion takeover bid by rival BHP Group Ltd.

It has sold its coking-coal and nickel businesses and is on track to spin off most of its controlling holding in Anglo American Platinum Ltd. by June, the company said. It also plans to either sell or hold an initial public offering for its De Beers unit, the world’s biggest diamond company.

“There are clearly also a great many function support roles that move to the businesses we are divesting and demerging, including Anglo American Platinum, to ensure they are set up on a standalone basis,” the company said in a later statement.

Most of its corporate staff are in South Africa, where the company was founded by Ernest Oppenheimer in 1917 to exploit the world’s biggest gold field, the Witwatersrand. During the isolation brought by apartheid, it expanded from mining into businesses ranging from banking to paper making.

After an initial round of divestments, it moved its headquarters to London in 1998.

The company slashed jobs at its main South African corporate office in 2023 and later fired workers at its iron-ore unit, which it is retaining, and at Amplats.

(By Loni Prinsloo, Antony Sguazzin and William Clowes)

If history and inflation hold true, speculative demand has always driven gold higher, he argued in an interview. Futures markets, he notes, paint a far more bullish picture, exposing a disconnect between price forecasts and supply and demand fundamentals.

“I think the analysts are not talking to each other,” he said January in Vancouver. “The supply and demand team is bullish, but the price team is bearish.”

Kalinowski takes a similarly skeptical view of platinum forecasts. While analysts remain bullish, he argues they underestimate the market’s potential. He warns that platinum stocks will hit a 47‑year low this year. It’s a signal that inventories will continue to shrink and push prices higher faster.

On palladium, Kalinowski warns of a prolonged price slump.

Watch below the full interview with The Northern Miner’s western editor, Henry Lazenby.

This year’s deficit of 848,000 troy ounces will, however, be smaller than 2024’s 995,000 ounces due to a 5% fall in demand, the WPIC, whose members are major Western platinum producers, said in a quarterly report.

It had previously projected the 2025 and 2024 shortfall at 539,000 ounces and 682,000 ounces, respectively.

Inflows into physically backed platinum exchange-traded funds due to rising gold prices, and into the Comex exchange stocks due to US tariff-related fears, supported investment in platinum in the final quarter of last year and are expected to continue this year, the WPIC said.

Demand from the auto sector, which uses platinum in catalytic converters to reduce harmful emissions from vehicle exhaust systems, is projected to fall by 1% this year to 3.1 million ounces.

However, the biggest factor behind the change in the deficit estimate since the WPIC’s November report was a 278,000-ounce downgrade in this year’s recycling estimate, as “the anticipated improvement in the market is now considered unlikely to materialize in the near term”.

Global platinum recycling fell in 2024 by 1% to the lowest level in WPIC data going back to 2013, and is expected to increase only marginally in 2025 due to constraints in the supply of spent autocatalysts and declines in jewellery recycling.

To cover the deficit, above-ground stocks will fall by 25% to 2.5 million ounces, equal to less than four months of global demand.

(By Polina Devitt; Editing by Jan Harvey)

Earlier this month, Trump said levies on automobiles would be coming as soon as April 2. This would mean imports into the country would become more expensive, while exporters to the United States could see demand for their cars slide.

The ripple effects are expected to spread to platinum, palladium and rhodium, known collectively as platinum group metals, which are used in vehicle exhaust systems for gas, diesel and hybrid vehicles.

Tariffs typically fuel inflation and keep interest rates higher, potentially slowing economic growth, which Zain Vawda, market analyst at MarketPulse by OANDA, said would weaken demand for platinum and palladium.

The auto sector accounts for nearly 40% of platinum demand and 80% of palladium offtake globally.

Vawda expects global platinum demand to decline 1% or around 102,000 ounces this year and palladium by 4% or 364,000 ounces if the tariffs on US auto imports are imposed.

The US auto industry is heavily dependent on imported parts and fully assembled vehicles, particularly from Canada and Mexico.

Barclays estimates Mexico provides up to 40% of the parts in US vehicles, Canada provides more than 20% and that German auto giant Volkswagen produces about three-quarters of its North American fleet in Mexico.

Meanwhile, Wilma Swarts, director of PGM research at Metals Focus, said PGM demand could drop about 150,000 ounces this year if tariffs reduce US vehicle sales by up to one million units and if 90% of that drop is from internal combustion engine and hybrid vehicles.

“American consumers would probably hesitate to buy a tariff hit vehicle because they wouldn’t like the higher price,” said David Whiston, equity strategist – US autos at Morningstar.

Spot platinum and spot palladium each fell more than 2% on February 19, a day after Trump announced his auto tariff plans. Since then, they have dropped about 5% and 7%, respectively.

(By Ashitha Shivaprasad and Shivansh Tiwary; Editing by Pratima Desai and Kirsten Donovan)

Commenting on the company’s results for the final six months of 2024, chief executive Nico Muller said Implats has been “continuously evaluating the future” of the palladium-rich Lac des Iles mine in Ontario. The operation contributed about 7% of the company’s production in the period.

“I would not be surprised if, in the course of the next few months we come to a position that an accelerated and responsible wind down of that operation seems to be economically the most effective way to deal with (Impala) Canada,” Muller said.

Price plunge

Palladium has suffered the steepest price drop among platinum group metals (PGMs), plunging from a peak of about $3,440 an ounce in March 2022 to current levels around $921.

The sharp fall has weighed on Implats’ profitability, cutting its first-half fiscal 2025 earnings to 1.9 billion rand ($103 million).

Implats acquired the Lac des Iles mine in 2019, which fuelled the company’s profits in the early part of the decade. 

Like its peers such as Anglo American Platinum and Sibanye-Stillwater (JSE: SSW) (NYSE: SBSW), the company has been forced to cut costs and scale back production in response to persistently weak metal prices.

The world’s top producer of platinum group metals (PGM) used to curb vehicle emissions said in a statement that heavy rains in the northern part of South Africa over the past week had caused widespread flooding.

Tumela mine, the smaller underground operation in Amplats’ Amandelbult complex, was the most impacted, it said.

Operations in the rest of the complex, including the main Dishaba mine, the concentrator and other infrastructure, were largely unaffected and operations there had resumed on Monday after a temporary pause.

A detailed impact assessment and recovery plan to ensure safe production at Tumela mine, which produces about 10% of Amplats’ monthly metal-in-concentrate, was under way.

“Preliminary indications are that the 2025 metal-in-concentrate production guidance of 3 million to 3.4 million PGM ounces is not expected to be impacted,” Amplats said.

Amplats on February 17 reported a 40% decline in profit for 2024 to 8.4 billion rand ($458.56 million) as lower PGM prices continue to hurt its income.

($1 = 18.3184 rand)

(By Nelson Banya; Editing by Aidan Lewis)

The company’s flagship Kamoa-Kakula copper complex in the Democratic Republic of Congo set record output of 437,061 tonnes of copper in concentrate and $3.11 billion in revenue. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization rose to $625 million from $604 million in 2023, the company said on Thursday.

The performance contrasts with Canaccord Genuity mining analyst Dalton Baretto recalling how a Jan. 2 fire knocked out backup power and delayed Ivanhoe’s forecast for this year. Baretto also critiqued the company’s $1.2 billion plan to expand the Platreef project in South Africa to output of 450,000 to 550,000 oz. of three platinum group metals and gold by late 2027.

“We note that these were more aggressive on timelines, capex and particularly costs,” Baretto said on a note on Friday. “We have adjusted our estimates.” The bank’s target share price slid to C$24 from C$27.50.

Ivanhoe shares fell 11% to close on Friday at C$14.97 apiece as wider markets dropped. The company is trading close to the bottom of its 12-month range at C$13.84, having achieved C$21.32 in the period. It has a market capitalization of C$20.3 billion.

After adjustments, Ivanhoe’s normalized profit was $386 million. This included a $164 million loss from the fair value of convertible notes and extra finance costs.

Kamoa-Kakula

Founder and co-chairman Robert Friedland lauded Kamoa-Kakula’s “extraordinary performance” in its record 133,819 tonnes for the three months to Dec. 31. “The completion of Africa’s largest and greenest copper smelter marks a pivotal moment, unlocking new potential for enhanced profitability, reduced costs and streamlined efficiencies,” he said.

Ivanhoe reported the complex faced challenges like higher use of imported and backup power. Still, its C1 or cash cost was between $1.65 and $1.85 per pound.

The site’s stage-three expansion is complete. The brand new, direct-to-blister copper smelter is to be switched on in April after a three-month delay caused by intermittent power availability. Similar challenges loom in 2025.

Kipushi flooding

The Kipushi mine, a high‐grade zinc–copper–germanium–silver asset also in the DRC, managed to hit design processing rates late in 2024 after initial ramp-up challenges. However, an electrical failure followed by flooding has now delayed further development.

A 344,000-tonne surface stockpile keeps mill operations running at design rates. But analysts warn that delays might hurt production later this year if development doesn’t meet expectations.

The disruption at Kipushi not only pushed C1 costs higher but also underlines the vulnerability of operations when critical infrastructure issues arise.

A debottlenecking effort is ongoing to boost processing capacity by 20%. They are also assessing an upstream dense media separation circuit to handle fines.

“For 2025, Ivanhoe is guiding to C1 costs of 90¢ to $1 per lb., well above our estimates,” Baretto said in Friday’s note. “We have updated our life-of-mine cost assumptions to be more conservative.”

Platreef

Ivanhoe’s expansion plan for Platreef aims to ramp up annual processing to 700,000 tonnes late this year with projected output of 100,000 oz. of three platinum group metals plus gold.

The second stage is projected to boost mining and processing rates to 4.1 million tonnes per year at an all-in sustaining cost (AISC) of roughly $700 per ounce. A third stage plans to further increase capacity to 10.7 million tonnes at an additional capital cost of about $800 million, with production forecasts of 1 to 1.2 million oz. per year at an AISC of around $650 per oz. coming online in late 2030.

The South African producer made a loss of $398 million in 2024 after taking an additional impairment of 8.8 billion rand ($477 million) on platinum-group metals mines in Montana, it said on Friday. That brought total writedowns on the US assets — including a larger one announced a year ago — to about $2.6 billion.

Shares declined as much as 9.3% — the biggest drop in three months – and were 6.4% lower at 4:28 p.m. in Johannesburg. The company’s earnings last year missed estimates, while some cost projections for 2025 overshot expectations, according to analysts at Citigroup and RMB Morgan Stanley.

While Sibanye improved on a $2 billion loss in 2023, the recent performance is a sharp reversal for a miner whose core PGM business drove bumper profits in the early part of this decade.

Under soon-to-retire boss Neal Froneman, the company has diversified away from aging South African gold mines, initially acquiring PGM assets both in its home country and the US before investing in metals key to the green-energy transition.

Sibanye – like peers Anglo American Platinum Ltd. and Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. – has cut costs as it battles persistently weak PGM prices. In September, the company announced further restructuring at its loss-making Stillwater mines in the US that could curb palladium and platinum output from the assets by as much as 45%.

Still, the cost of running the US mines this year will remain “well above” the level “required for sustainable operations” and additional savings are being pursued, Sibanye said. The company estimates that its American assets are entitled to tax credits of about $210 million for the past two years under the Inflation Reduction Act, even though the recent change of government in the US has introduced “some uncertainty” about the legislation’s future, it said.

The price of palladium – the main metal Sibanye produces in Montana – is trading at less than a third of its 2022 peak. South African PGM mines – richer in platinum, whose price has been steadier over the same period – turned a profit, as did gold assets in the country. 2024 was a year of “austerity measures,” Froneman said on a call presenting the firm’s results.

PGMs are used in devices that lower emissions from gasoline and diesel vehicles. Sibanye and its rivals are focused on finding alternative sources of consumption for the metals to compensate for demand that’s forecast to fall from the auto sector as electric vehicles gain market share. Froneman’s firm is also developing a lithium mining and processing project in Finland and owns a nickel refinery in France as it expands in materials used in EV batteries.

While Sibanye was founded on high-cost gold mines spun off by Gold Fields Ltd. in 2013, the company’s production of the precious metal has reduced by more than half over the years. However, with the price of bullion soaring more than 40% in the last 14 months and notching multiple records, income from the assets increased by two-thirds last year to 5.8 billion rand.

“These mature mines, buoyed by the tailwind of a strong gold price, delivered materially better financial results for 2024, during a challenging period for most of our other metals, which are more aligned with industrial economic cycles,” Sibanye said.

Froneman said the company is “open to engaging in settlement talks” with Appian Capital Advisory after a UK court ruled in October that Sibanye unlawfully terminated the purchase of two Brazilian mines from the private equity firm. The two parties are preparing for a hearing due to take place in November at which Appian said on Friday its total claim is expected to exceed $600 million. Sibanye has said the company should receive “either no or significantly reduced damages.”

Sibanye bolstered its balance sheet last year concluding multiple financing, streaming and prepay deals totaling $1.9 billion. The company’s profit before some one-time items – known as headline earnings – was similar to 2023 at $99 million.

(By William Clowes)

Read More: Sibanye’s Montana woes underscore miners’ growing reliance on Washington

Power Nickel (TSXV: PNPN) clocked the highest growth, with its share price rising 630% over the last year to C$1.70 apiece on Wednesday, for a market cap of C$330.8 million. It’s at fourth place.

“The performance of the TSX Venture 50 underscores the strategic importance of Canadian natural resources and high-growth innovation,” TSX Venture Exchange president Tim Babcock said in a release.

“With heightened demand for critical minerals, energy security and transition, and advanced manufacturing, this year’s TSX Venture 50 showcases how TSXV is empowering Canadian businesses to raise capital, scale operations, and contribute to a secure and prosperous future for Canada.”

The top 50 list ranks each company’s performance by market capitalization growth, share price appreciation and Canadian consolidated trading value. The 50 companies comprise a total market value of C$21.7 billion as of Dec. 31, a C$16 billion rise in one year. In that period, the companies’ share price rose 207%, compared to the 121% growth in 2023 and 73% in 2022.

Power Nickel’s share increase contrasts with CEO Terry Lynch’s alarm one year ago over naked short sellers illegally targeting the company’s stock. Lynch didn’t immediately reply to a phone call and email on Wednesday seeking comment on the stock performance.

The company is changing its name to Power Metallic Mines from Friday. The new name better reflects the high-grade discoveries of copper, platinum and palladium at the company’s Nisk project in Quebec, it said on Wednesday.

Founders’ a keeper

Founders Metals (TSXV: FDR), in sixth place, gained 324% over the last year to C$5.30 apiece, for a market cap of C$469.1 million.

The gold explorer has benefited from key developments in the last 12 months, including a C$30 million investment this month, C$14 million in backing from B2Gold (TSX: BTO) and strong drill results at its Antino project in Suriname.

‘Highest value issuer’

Artemis Gold (TSXV: ARTG), in 10^th spot, rose 127% over the last year to C$16.15 apiece, valuing it at C$3.6 billion. The developer poured first gold and silver at its Blackwater project in central British Columbia last month, making it the province’s first new gold mine since 2017.

At C$1.3 billion worth of shares traded, Artemis booked the highest consolidated value traded of any TSXV 50 issuer last year, noted TMX.

In a note on Wednesday, Haywood Capital Markets analyst Pierre Vaillancourt wrote that he expects Blackwater to reach commercial production in the second quarter and an expansion decision in the second half of the year.

“With upcoming catalysts for commercial production, capacity production, and expansion, we believe there is more room to run,” he said. “As the mine approaches capacity production, we believe the potential to be an acquisition target will grow.”

In this year’s ranking, two-thirds or 31 listings are mining companies, with many focused on critical minerals and precious metals. As a whole, these companies have boosted their market capitalization to C$8.1 billion, a 174% increase over last year, TMX said.

Chrome is a by-product of platinum mining, and South African miners including Sibanye are reporting increased income from the metal used in steelmaking at a time of sharply lower prices for the primary minerals.

The platinum group metals (PGM), used to curb automotive emissions, have experienced a steep price decline and face an uncertain future as sales of battery-powered vehicles grow.

At the same time, chrome prices have been buoyant, driven by demand from China, and producers expect a rebound after a cooling off in the last quarter of 2024.

The majority of Sibanye’s chrome recovery plants at its South African PGM operations will be operated by the Glencore Merafe Venture, “enabling both parties to leverage synergies and increase chrome output”, Sibanye said in a statement.

Ferrochrome producer Merafe Resources, a Glencore affiliate and partner in the Glencore Merafe Venture, confirmed the arrangement in a separate statement.

Sibanye’s outgoing CEO Neal Froneman said he expects the deal to “immediately enhance cash flow from the SA PGM operations”.

Sibanye earned 3.1 billion rand ($168.84 million) from chrome sales in the first half of 2024, a 42% increase on the same period of 2023. Its chrome sales volumes of 1.3 million tons in the six months were 19% higher than the same period the year before.

($1 = 18.3608 rand)

(By Nelson Banya; Editing by Helen Popper)

Read More: Sibanye flags full-year loss after $500 million US impairment

The company also reported a 154% increase in the total amount of contained palladium equivalent (PdEq) ounces, compared to the previous estimate in 2023.

Bravo’s shares were trading at C$2.54 on Tuesday morning, up 10.43% in Toronto. The company has a market capitalization of C$277 million ($195 million).

Strategic location

Luanga is located approximately 40 km east-northeast of Parauapebas, the mining capital of Pará and home to the Carajás complex — the main iron ore production hub of Vale SA.

According to Bravo, the inferred resources at the deposit have increased to 78 million tonnes with a grade of 2.01 grams per tonne (g/t) of palladium equivalent, resulting in a total of 5 million oz. of palladium equivalent.

The company also reported that measured and indicated categories now account for 67% of the total resource, an increase from 38% in the 2023 estimate.

Bravo’s new pit-constrained mineral resource estimate includes 158 million tonnes with a grade of 2.04 g/t palladium equivalent, amounting to a total of 10.4 million oz. of palladium equivalent.

“The 2025 MRE firmly establishes our Luanga project as one of the few large-scale, multi-million-ounce, open-pit PGM deposits available globally, in mining-friendly, geopolitically favorable locations,” said Luis Azevedo, Bravo’s chairman and CEO.

Anglo plans to sell its Brazil-based nickel business to China-backed MMG Limited subsidiary MMG Singapore Resources, the company reported Tuesday.

The payment is to comprise $350 million upfront at the deal’s close, up to $100 million in price-linked earnout and a conditional $50 million tied to the final investment decision for development projects.

“The sale of our nickel business after a highly competitive process marks a further important milestone towards simplifying our portfolio to create a more highly valued copper, premium iron ore, and crop nutrients business,” Anglo CEO Duncan Wanblad said in a release.

“MMG is well-respected as a safe and responsible operator and we believe our agreement represents a strong outcome not only for our shareholders, but also for our employees and Brazilian stakeholders.”

Shares in Anglo American fell 1% on Tuesday in London to £24.47 ($30.87) apiece, valuing the company at £33 billion. They’ve traded in a 52-week range of £16.57 to £28.13.

$5.3B in total cash

The nickel business sale, along with the sale of Anglo’s steelmaking coal operations in Australia in November 2024, is anticipated to produce up to $5.3 billion in total cash proceeds, Wanblad added.

The Brazilian nickel assets include the Barro Alto mine, Niquelândia mine and the Barro Alto and Codemin ferronickel processing plants, which produced 39,400 tonnes of nickel in 2024. There are also the greenfield projects Jacaré, that hosts a 300-million-tonne resource, and Morro Sem Boné with total potential mineralization of 65 million tonnes.

Amplats demerger

Anglo meanwhile has set a timeline of three months or so  to demerge Anglo American Platinum (JSE: AMS), after it first announced a plan to break up its businesses last May. Its diamond business De Beers is also part of the demerger, amid BHP’s failed bid to acquire Anglo for $49.2 billion last year. Anglo said earlier this month it was nearing a decision on when the De Beers spinoff would happen, without specifying a date.

Anglo’s final dividend for 2024, as well as an additional cash dividend for a total of R16.5 billion ($895 million), is to be paid to all Amplats shareholders before the demerger. As a 67% shareholder in Amplats, Anglo expects to receive about $600 million from the dividends.

Anglo plans to keep a 19.9% shareholding in Amplats to help manage flowback – when new shareholders after a move like demerging sell their stock – by reducing the size of the shareholding to be demerged, Wanblad said. The company intends to eventually leave its Amplats holding, he added. Anglo is to seek shareholder approval for the Amplats demerger at its next annual general meeting on April 30.

The payout is despite annual profit slumping 40% to about 8.4 billion rand ($456.7 million) as lower platinum-group metal (PGM) prices continue to squeeze earnings.

Johannesburg-based Amplats said the 15.7 billion rand cash payout is in addition to a final dividend of 3 rand per share, or about 800 million rand, ahead of its plan to demerge from parent company Anglo American.

Amplats will pay the additional dividend from its net cash reserves of about 17.6 billion rand, CEO Craig Miller said on a call with journalists.

CFO Sayurie Naidoo added that the company can afford the extra payout without compromising its liquidity position.

“All our assets are cash generative and therefore we expect by the end of the year we will still be in a cash neutral position,” she said.

The miner’s shares rose as much as 3.8% in early morning trading.

“We have modelled this on various price scenarios and we still believe we will be able to execute on our strategy.” Naidoo said.

Amplats would continue to benefit from demand for PGMs mostly from automakers, as the rollout of battery electric vehicles, which do not use the metals, slows down, Miller said. South African PGMs have also scaled back investing in new mines, which could result in future supply tightening, Miller said.

“There will be continued demand for our metals and through the assets we have we will be able to supply into that,” Miller said.

The platinum miner is due to be spun off from the London-listed group by June, part of a restructuring strategy implemented by Anglo American after fighting off a $49 billion takeover bid from bigger rival BHP last year.

Anglo has also sold its coal assets and is in the process of selling its nickel business in Brazil. It also plans to divest its De Beers diamond unit.

Anglo will maintain a 19.9% stake in the demerged unit and gradually manage its exit over time, but will have no presence on the Amplats board, it said.

Retaining the stake could also help manage “flowback issues”, RBC Capital market analysts said.

“This should help with the possible flowback issues on the stock, particularly from passive index holders of Anglo American that would mechanically be selling the shares post demerger,” the analysts said.

($1 = 18.3938 rand)

(By Felix Njini, Nelson Banya and Clara Denina, Editing by Tom Hogue, Christian Schmollinger, Kirsten Donovan and Sharon Singleton)

Kuvimba Mining House Ltd., under new chief executive officer Trevor Barnard, is looking to development banks, mining companies and traders to raise $950 million to develop lithium, platinum and gold assets, he said in an interview.

“Access to all the large development banks, to all the funding, to all the major traders has just opened up,” said Barnard, without identifying the potential financiers. The change in the ownership structure has “been really a very good move for Kuvimba.”

Previous attempts to raise funding were hindered because of speculation over the undisclosed identity of private investors who held about a third of the company. Earlier attempts to hold an initial public offering and form a venture with Russian investors were abandoned.

Kuvimba’s main assets were formerly held by companies tied to Kudakwashe Tagwirei, a politically connected businessman, Bloomberg reported in 2021.

Tagwirei, a one-time adviser to Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa, has been sanctioned for alleged corruption by the US and the UK. Kuvimba has always denied that he ever held a stake in the company.

The government has discussed handing some of Kuvimba’s output to Trafigura Group to repay an outstanding fuel debt, Bloomberg reported in 2022.

More than half of the amount the company plans to raise will go toward a building an underground platinum mine at the long-delayed Darwendale project, according to Barnard, who took up his post in December. A lithium project the company estimates will cost as much as $275 million may be quicker to develop, he said.

The company has agreed a lithium joint venture with Chinese mining firms, and will finalize the deal by March before proceeding to build the first phase of the project known as Sandawana.

It will take about 15 months after signing to start production that will ultimately reach 500,000 tons of lithium concentrate per annum, Barnard said. The Chinese partners will finance the project and transfer it back to Kuvimba once the loan is repaid, a process he estimated would take less than five years.

Kuvimba also plans to develop a second area at Sandawana. Barnard said the company has already received interest from potential investors, including Cluff Africa Ltd. and a major European commodity trader that he declined to name. Other Chinese investors are also keen, he said, adding Kuvimba may sign a deal within six to 12 months.

Cluff didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

At the Darwendale platinum deposit, the company initially plans to develop a smaller open-pit mine this year that will cost about $50 million to dig. It will pay another mining company to process that ore, according to Barnard.

Kuvimba is in talks with development banks for loans to finance the bigger, underground project and processing facilities, he said, without giving more detail. The targeted start date is within three years.

Zimbabwe holds the world’s second-biggest platinum reserves after South Africa and is Africa’s biggest lithium producer.

Kuvimba is now 70%-owned by the state sovereign wealth fund known as Mutapa Investment Fund, with entities held by the finance ministry, including state pension funds, power utilities and a deposit insurance fund, holding the rest, Barnard said.

(By Matthew Hill)

He will be succeeded by Richard Stewart, current head of the company’s operations in Southern Africa, who will assume the role of CEO-designate starting March 1 while continuing his regional responsibilities.

Froneman, 65, has led Sibanye since its inception in 2013, when the company—then known as Sibanye Gold—was formed through the consolidation of three old Gold Fields mines. Under his leadership, Sibanye transformed into a diversified mining giant with gold and platinum group metals (PGM) operations across Southern Africa and the United States.

“Neal leaves behind a proud legacy at Sibanye-Stillwater and in the South African mining industry, which is testament to his strategic vision and inspirational leadership,” board chair Vincent Maphai said in a statement.

“He still has the same enthusiasm for what he does, and has lost none of his drive [but] wishes to spend more of his time with his family and loved ones and on his many interests.” 

During his tenure, Froneman expanded Sibanye-Stillwater into critical minerals, notably lithium, through the acquisition of a stake in Finland’s Keliber Lithium project, a joint venture with the Finnish government. The company is also involved in the Rhyolite Ridge lithium project in the US.

Sibanye has further diversified into zinc, acquiring Australia’s Century mine after taking over local producer New Century Resources in 2023.

Profit in 2024 likely declined to between 6.3 billion rand ($339 million) and 7.6 billion rand, from 13 billion rand the previous year, the Johannesburg-based company said Thursday in a statement. Earnings were also hit by 1.9 billion rand of asset writedowns, mainly relating to the coarse particle recovery technology at its Mogalakwena mine.

Anglo American Plc announced plans to exit its controlling stake in Johannesburg-listed Amplats last May. It’s part of a wider restructuring program that was unveiled in response to an unsolicited $49 billion takeover proposal by BHP Group. Anglo has since sold part of its stake in Amplats to increase the South African unit’s free float ahead of a full exit.

Amplats and its peers in South Africa – by far the world’s largest producer of platinum – have been battling a prolonged period of weak prices that’s slashed profits and forced cost-cutting. In the longer term, the firms are focused on finding alternative sources of consumption to replace dwindling demand from the auto sector, which uses PGMs to curb emissions in gasoline and diesel vehicles.

(By Dylan Griffiths)

Read More: Anglo Platinum CEO sees investor interest ahead of spinoff

Stripping away Trump’s bluster and often contradictory actions, the message seems to be fairly clear. Trump’s view of the world is that you are either with the United States or against it.

That presents a dilemma for Africa’s mineral rich countries as they want to develop their resources to provide them with the maximum benefit, but they also want to stay largely neutral.

But it’s increasingly likely that at some level African countries will have to decide whether they are more in the Trump camp, or whether they prefer to do business with the China-led BRICS group.

There are risks and rewards under both scenarios, and the circumstances of each African country may cause to lean one way or another.

Much of the debate at this weeks Investing in African Mining Conference in Cape Town has effectively been about the best path forward for Africa’s miners and governments.

The continent is already a major producer of minerals, but it’s untapped reserves are the major prize in coming decades, especially if the energy transition accelerates.

Africa is richly endowed, with an estimated 20% of global copper reserves, about the same for aluminum raw materials, 50% of manganese and cobalt, 90% of platinum group metals, 36% of chromium, as well as reserves of lithium, uranium, gold and rare earths.

But developing its mineral resources has been often too challenging, given political instability and corruption, poor infrastructure, lack of capital and legal frameworks that make long-term investments hard to justify.

However, the increasing appetite of the world for minerals, especially to enable the energy transition, is likely to set off a new scramble for Africa, this time Africans will have more say in how it unfolds.

Finding the right partners is the challenge for African countries.

On the one hand the Western world still offers deep capital reserves, sophisticated equity markets and investors and skills and experience in mining and engineering.

But Trump is undermining these advantages with his tariffs and threats to withhold aid and other funding, as well as his habit of turning on traditional allies and flip-flopping policies.

The main issue with Trump is his apparent transactional view of the world, in which there must always be a winner and a loser, and he always wants to be the winner.

This means getting a mutually beneficial deal from the United States is going to be more difficult while Trump is in office.

Not beggars

It was perhaps this frustration that boiled over in the remarks at the Investing in African Mining event, on Monday when South Africa’s Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe said Africa should withhold minerals from the United States if Trump cuts aid.

“If they don’t give us money, let’s not give them minerals. We are not just beggars,” Mantashe told the conference, which is also known as Mining Indaba.

“We cannot continue to debate these minerals based on the dictates of some developed nations as if we have no aspirations to accelerate Africa’s industrialization and close the development deficit,” Mantashe said.

These comments may be unwise in that they may serve to antagonize Trump, but they may also sharpen some thinking in the West on how best to get access to Africa’s minerals.

Should Africa be looking more toward China and the rest of the BRICS nations, as the best option to unlock its mineral wealth?

The experience here has been somewhat mixed. While China has been willing to develop mines in Africa, it tends to want to do it mainly using its own people and processes, and it wants to export raw ores and beneficiate them in China.

This has limited the benefits to African countries, but there may be an option to use legislation to copy what Indonesia has done in forcing companies to commit to domestic downstream operations as part of access to raw materials.

(The views expressed here are those of the author, Clyde Russell, a columnist for Reuters.)

(Editing by Kim Coghill)

The spinoff is part of the group’s restructuring strategy, launched when fighting off a $49 billion takeover bid from bigger rival BHP in 2024 to focus on more profitable copper and iron ore assets.

Amplats is due to be separated by mid-year, which will also result in the company changing its name, Miller said, without giving details.

With a secondary listing in London, Amplats will be the only PGMs (platinum group metals) producer on the bourse, possibly appealing to new investors, he added.

“There is a lot of interest in that (the standalone business),” Miller told Reuters on the sidelines of the Mining Indaba conference in Cape town.

“(London) is a lot easier… It might just be more attractive for certain fund managers to invest via the London Stock Exchange.”

Prices of the white metals used primarily in autocatalysts have slid in the past two years, with demand hit by the rise of battery electric vehicles, which don’t require them.

As part of its strategic overhaul, Anglo American sold its coal assets and is in the process of selling its nickel business in Brazil. It also plans to divest its De Beers diamond unit.

South Africa’s platinum miners, among the country’s largest foreign currency earners, employ around 170,000 workers, but the industry has cut production and shed thousands of jobs in response to lower demand.

Amplats, the biggest platinum miner by value, said recent dialled-down demand for electric vehicles could help boost interest in the metal.

“There is a lot of interest in PGMs because of the role they play in transportation, be that in hybrids, and potentially in the future, in the next decade, around hydrogen,” Miller said.

He added that lack of investment into new platinum mines could limit supply, lending support to prices.

“There’s no significant new supply of PGMs coming to the market,” Miller said.

(By Felix Njini and Clara Denina; Editing by Veronica Brown and Elaine Hardcastle)

The London-listed miner in May rebuffed a $49 billion hostile bid from the world’s biggest miner BHP, which was focused on Anglo’s copper assets.

Since then Anglo, whose stock was the best-performing of the major miners in 2024, has streamlined the company by selling off coal assets and agreeing to separate out its platinum business.

It has still to find buyers for its nickel operations in Brazil and partners for a UK fertilizer project that needs massive amounts of capital to bring it into commercial production.

But spinning off De Beers could be a major boost for valuation, given weak demand for diamonds.

Anglo said in May it would take between 18 months and two years to spin off the unit, a timeline analysts have said is too ambitious.

Wanblad, however, said plans to divest De Beers “would be substantively complete” by the end of 2025.

“It’s going to be fully set up as a standalone business to make sure that it’s not going to be impacting as a drag in any way, shape or form on the business,” he said on the sidelines of the Indaba mining conference in Cape Town.

Botswana, which owns a 15% stake in De Beers has offered to raise its stake.

“They certainly indicated a desire to increase their stake and they have also said they would do so on commercial terms,” Wanblad said, but declined to say how a big a stake Botswana wanted.

Without De Beers, Anglo could find itself even more hotly pursued for its rich, long-life copper assets in Latin America as copper is critical for the transition to greener energy and needed by data centres required by artificial intelligence.

A takeover can be the fastest way to generate returns for the targeted company and its shareholders, who have the final say in any deal.

“Consolidating the industry, per se, whilst it looks fantastic from a corporate financing point of view, isn’t a good thing for the population of the world because less gets done,” Wanblad said.

“But my job is to drive the best value for shareholders from this company and that’s what I’m doing,” he said further. “So if this company is fully valued and somebody makes a high premium offer for it, fantastic.”

(By Felix Njini and Clara Denina; Editing by Veronica Brown and Barbara Lewis)

Africa’s leaders demand a shift from exporting raw resources to local beneficiation. They want to capitalize on a growing supply gap in critical minerals as countries turn inward. Speakers at the forum, “Future-proofing African Mining, Today,” emphasized how Africa must transform raw materials into finished products. If not, the continent may lose economic value and control over its mineral wealth and its economic future.

The need for local beneficiation intensifies against the backdrop of a mining sector under pressure. Last year, the South African mining industry contributed 6% to the nation’s nominal gross domestic product—down slightly from 6.3% in 2023. It exported goods worth about R800 billion ($42 billion), accounting for 45% of all merchandise exports.

“We must invest in local beneficiation because it is a business decision, not a political one,” South Africa’s Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, Gwede Mantashe, said.

Mantashe challenged investors to weigh high export taxes and unreliable power against the potential gains from local mineral processing. He says companies often export raw commodities because doing so costs less than adding value at home.

“If it costs less to export raw materials than to process them here, the market makes that decision. We must reverse that trend,” he warned.

Marit Kitaw, of the Africa Minerals Development Centre in Addis Ababa, warned that the time for dithering has run out.

“Africa must take ownership of its mineral wealth by processing it locally. This is not just about economic growth; it is about safeguarding our future against an unpredictable global trade environment,” Kitaw said.

With global supply chains in flux and rising geopolitical risks, African leaders say that local beneficiation is a survival imperative, not just an economic strategy. Processing minerals in Africa can change the continent. It can shift from just supplying raw materials to generating a more industrialized economy. This will help protect its wealth and promote sustainable, inclusive growth for its people, the minister said.

Opportunity to shine

The South African Minerals Council, an industry group, says mining must lower its costs to encourage more exploration.  The change would boost primary mining and encourage beneficiation when it makes sense commercially, Hugo Pienaar, the council’s chief economist, said during a media briefing.

South Africa’s role as the G20 president now and summit host this November, gives the country leverage, Pienaar said.

“There is a significant opportunity to showcase the country’s mineral potential and contribute to the global transition to a prosperous, low-carbon future,” he said.

The forum also showcased practical reforms. Mantashe announced that his department is finalizing a new mining licensing system. It has international support to attract investment and speed up approvals. He stressed the country is taking strides to provide reliable, affordable power, which remains crucial for local beneficiation.

“Investors, make your money here,” he urged. “When you profit, reinvest in our communities by building schools, clinics and infrastructure.”

Sector under pressure

The industry contributed over R100 billion ($5.3 billion) to the government through corporate taxes, value-added tax and personal income taxes. It also directly employed 471,882 people in the third quarter of 2024. Yet, new data from the Minerals Council South Africa (MCSA) shows that logistical issues and lower non-gold commodity prices limited production gains.

MCSA CEO Mzila Mthenjane says teamwork can lift these constraints. The government, state-owned entities and the private sector must work together.

Mthenjane pointed to future milestones. These include a June launch of an online mining cadastre system. Also, a critical minerals list and strategy will be published, along with a revised Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act. These set the baseline for future growth and hope for global relevance.

Unmatched mineral wealth

Mantashe underlined the economic potential of local processing by citing stark figures. South Africa supplies 73% of the world’s platinum group metals, 30% of global palladium and produces 7.2 million tonnes of manganese a year, 36% of global output.

Gold mining in Africa’s most developed economy has declined. Production fell to 96 tonnes in 2023, and it employs 90,000 people. But, rising demand for other critical minerals presents a new chance.

Samaila Zubairu, CEO of the Africa Finance Corporation, said local processing could boost industries, create jobs, and develop skills.

“Instead of shipping out raw bauxite, we must focus on transforming it into alumina and aluminum right here in Africa,” he said.

Downstream benefits

Some say local processing can strengthen supply chains. This is important as protectionism disrupts global trade. Martina Biene, managing director and chair of Volkswagen Group South Africa, noted the benefits downstream.

“A robust beneficiation process stabilizes raw material costs and drives innovation in industries like automotive manufacturing,” she explained.

Biene said a strong beneficiation process stabilizes raw material costs. It also drives automotive innovation, which contributes about 5% to South Africa’s GDP.

She stressed that the automotive industry needs a steady supply of locally processed minerals — steel, aluminum, copper, lithium, cobalt and nickel — for vehicle production. This need is critical as the shift to electric vehicles accelerates.

Organizations representing firms including Glencore Plc and a unit of Anglo American Plc are negotiating the terms of the pacts with Transnet, said Ian Bird, head of transport and logistics for B4SA, a business group that’s partnering with the government to revive South Africa’s sub-standard transport and energy infrastructure and operations.

The collapse of freight-rail lines due to poor maintenance and theft of equipment saw coal exports plunge to a 30-year low of 48 million tons in 2023 while iron ore railings slumped to the lowest in a decade. While coal railings improved to 52.1 million tons last year, the first increase since 2017, that was well short of a 60-million-ton target. It also equated to just over half of total rail capacity of 91 million tons.

The government has agreed to allow private operators to run trains on the lines from about April to boost export income.

“We are now at a point where something has to be done,” Bird said in an interview. The state of the lines has an “impact on both Transnet Freight Rail and third-party operators,” he said.

The parties haven’t publicly disclosed the likely terms of the agreements, which should facilitate an infusion of private capital and expertise. Transnet, in a response to Bloomberg queries, put the cost of repairing the coal line over three years, at about 12.9 billion rand ($700 million) and the iron ore line at about 9 billion rand.

Repairing all Transnet’s tracks, including those used to transport containers and manganese, would requite 64.5 billion rand over five years, Transnet said last year.

“The conclusion of the agreements with the customers is on track,” Transnet said. “The investment is required to get these lines back up to a standard at which we can move more volumes.”

Companies export iron ore from the Saldanha port on South Africa’s west coast, while they ship most coal from Richards Bay on the eastern seaboard. Alongside gold, platinum group metals and cars, the two commodities are among South Africa’s biggest exports.

The Ore Users Forum, which counts Anglo’s Kumba Iron Ore Ltd. and Assmang Ltd. among its members, declined to comment. Richards Bay Coal Terminal Ltd., the privately owned coal-export port whose shareholders include Glencore, Thungela Resources Ltd. and Exxaro Resources Ltd., also didn’t comment.

The aim is to restore the lines “to near-enough maximum operational capacity,” Bird said. “It’s now a case of where the money will come from.”

He expects the Treasury to provide some clarity on funding for Transnet, which is deeply indebted, in next month’s national budget. Projected revenue the company earns from third parties will be lower than forecast because tariffs were roughly halved after negotiation, Bird added.

Independent entities have completed technical assessments of the work needed on the coal and iron ore lines, and they will carry out further studies on the other routes.

Transnet’s own attempts to boost its volumes are stalling.

Below target

At the meeting between representatives from the government, state companies, B4SA and President Cyril Ramaphosa last week, Transnet said it disclosed that total freight-rail volumes for the year to March 31 were up 5.3% from a year earlier, but about 7 million tons below target. The annual objective is 170 million tons. Derailment, theft and vandalism are to blame, it said.

The goal for the 2025-26 financial year is 193 million tons and for 2029-30 it is 250 million tons, about a fifth of which would be due to private operators and investment, a document drawn up for the meeting by the Government Business Partnership, which includes B4SA, showed. The business group confirmed the authenticity of the document.

Processing of containers at Transnet’s ports will also miss a target of 4.4 million 20-foot equivalent units this financial year, with a throughput of 4.2 million containers compared with the previous year’s 4.1 million tons, the presentation showed and Transnet confirmed. The company has set the 2029-30 aim after private intervention at 5.4 million units, the presentation shows.

The rollout of new electricity-generation capacity and transmission lines last year was also 48% and 28% below target respectively, charts in the the presentation reveal.

(By Antony Sguazzin)

Read More: Scramble for critical minerals spurs an African rail revival

The statistics did not include deaths from illegal mining.

Mines Minister Gwede Mantashe repeated the government’s position that illegal mining is a criminal activity and not part of his department’s remit.

Last week the bodies of 78 miners were pulled from an illegal gold mine after a heavily-criticized police operation lasting several months that tried to force them to the surface.

Of the deaths captured in last year’s official statistics, 11 were in the gold sector, 19 in platinum, six in coal and six in mines extracting other commodities.

Mantashe told a news conference in the capital Pretoria that there had been no “disaster-type” accidents in regulated mines last year, meaning events in which five or more mine workers had died. There was also a 16% improvement in occupational injuries.

Before 2024 the lowest number of deaths reported by the industry was in 2022, when 49 were recorded. The following year deaths increased to 55.

“As we release these statistics, we are conscious of the severity of illegal mining that has engulfed the South African mining industry,” Mantashe told reporters.

“Those that are involved in illegal mining, both the syndicates and the active illegal miners, have no regard for the health and safety of others, nor are they concerned about the laws that regulate the industry,” he added.

(By Sfundo Parakozov; Editing by Alexander Winning and Barbara Lewis)

With Trump’s inauguration due on Monday, COMEX activity widened the spread between New York and London gold prices and caused sharp volatility in the part of the market known as the exchange of futures for physical (EFP), used as a hedge to general precious business activity.

“These are not the typical mass media concerns about increasing trade tensions or even trade wars, leading to a slowdown of global growth and fuelling demand for gold as a safe haven. Instead, they are centring around some technicalities of global gold trade – EFP,” said Carsten Menke, analyst at Julius Baer.

“Futures can be used to hedge gold physical positions, which regularly requires flows from Europe to the United States should local inventories not be sufficient.”

Trump has not mentioned precious metals in any form with his US import tariff threats, but persisting uncertainty was enough to drive CME gold stocks to 23.62 million ounces, the highest since November 2022.

Silver and platinum stocks in the CME-approved warehouses also jumped, leaving only palladium unaffected.

“Some industrial buyers will have bought Comex futures to hedge their risk of higher prices on upcoming deliveries. If they want to book physical shipments immediately instead, banks and brokerages are only too happy to help, but for a fee of course,” said Adrian Ash, head of research at online marketplace BullionVault.

“London vaults and logistics providers are very, very busy preparing and making shipments to the US,” he added.

Spot gold prices were last down 0.2% at $2,708 a troy ounce, while US gold futures slid 0.1% at $2,748, meaning an unusually large premium of $40.

The price spread between New York and London prices was inflated by activity in the EFP, private agreements which allow traders to swap futures positions to and from physical, unallocated accounts.

“Intraday moves and volatility in the EFP have been extraordinary and unheard of with the EFPs, at times, moving more than the spot prices,” said Nicky Shiels, head of metals strategy at MKS PAMP SA.

(By Polina Devitt and Ashitha Shivaprasad; Editing by Veronica Brown and Aurora Ellis)

Read More: Trump tariff risks fuel a chaotic hunt for gold in London

At the end of  2024, the MINING.COM TOP 50* ranking of the world’s most valuable miners had a combined market capitalization of $1.28 trillion, down $126 billion for the year after a dismal final quarter when even gold firms succumbed to overall bearish sentiment.

The total stock market valuation of the world’s biggest mining companies declined by 9% or a combined $126.2 billion over the course of 2024. 

A promising Q3, when the index touched its second highest level on record, quickly turned sour and only eight constituents made gains over the final three months of the year. 

The Top 50 is now trading a stomach churning  $480 billion below the peak hit in the second quarter of 2022, when the entire mining complex was riding high from uranium and nickel to copper and gold. 

Much of the blame for the drift lower can be laid at the door of mining’s traditional champions.

Passing parade

Mining’s traditional big 5 – BHP, Rio Tinto, Glencore, Vale and Anglo American – that trace their roots back many decades if not more than a century, were pounded down in 2024.

Together the stalwarts shed 25.3% or $119.7 billion of their value as their bread and butter commodities – copper and iron ore – went into retreat. 

The rampant dollar over the final months of 2024 only compounded losses: MINING.COM’s Top 50 considers performance in US$ market capitalisation terms, not share price changes in local currency on domestic exchanges.  

In the past these companies would, apart from wobbles as the Chinese supercycle became just a cycle, consistently occupy the top five slots in the ranking, supported by vast asset portfolios covering a range of commodities across many regions. 

Now the big diversifieds stocks – the mining industry’s now erstwhile version of the Mag 7 – make up less than 28% of the total index, down from a height of 38% at the end of 2022.  

Vale, down 44.9% for the year, a dismal outcome made worse by the 22% fall in the real last year, is the ranking’s worst performer of the year. 

Vale topped $100 billion in value briefly in 2022.  Now the Rio de Janeiro based giant’s market cap is down to $37.7 billion and the counter has dropped out of the top 10 position pushed out by Indonesian upstart Amman Mineral.

Anglo American is not a top 10 company anymore either but has the distinction of being the only one of the old guard which ended 2024 in positive territory, adding $5.5 billion, or 18.1% last year. 

How much of that valuation is the lingering effects of BHP’s approach is debatable, but long term investors will still be carrying the shock of January 2016 when Anglo’s market cap fell below $5 billion after it came close to suffocating under a pile of debt.  

With the exception of Glencore which trades but does not mine the steelmaking raw material, iron ore has been the cash cow for the big 5 as China’s massive infrastructure investment sucked upwards of 80% of seaborne cargoes and prices flirted with $200 a tonne. 

In 2011, iron ore came with some of the fattest margins mining had ever enjoyed. With two-thirds of pre-tax profits coming from iron ore that year BHP recorded a $24 billion windfall, Vale reaped $23 billion, Rio racked up $15 billion and Anglo made $11 billion. 

Today iron ore is back to double digits and a looming supply surge coupled with the prolonged construction malaise in China, offer little hope of a return to the go-go days. 

Copper cop out 

Copper was going to play the role of iron ore for the Top 5 going forward and in the first half of 2024 that notion began to seem plausible.

Comex copper hit an all-time intraday high of nearly $5.20 a pound or $11,500 per tonne. In one 24-hour period trading volumes scaled $100 billion (twice the Dow daily average) with the bellwether metal attracting investors well beyond mining.  

Amid the frenzy, forecasts became ever more outlandish with 50% upside from the all-time high actually one of the more sober predictions.  But it didn’t take long for the squeeze to be squoze and by the end of the year copper had barely eked out a gain. Turns out copper is not the new oil. 

With the copper-heavy Anglo deal dead in the water, a pivot to organic growth is under way at BHP with up to $10bn being spent on Escondida alone, the world’s largest copper mine. 

Rio Tinto benefits from the fact that BHP has been working its Melbourne neighbour’s 30% stake in Escondida so hard while its Resolution copper project in Arizona languishes in permitting hell. 

The long-running battle to expand Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia also seems to have reached a steady state, but Rio’s diversification bent and penchant for opportunistic investment are intact. 

The company, one of only two miners with a $100 billion-plus valuation (and only just) spent $6.7 billion to buy into lithium in 2024 just as its Jadar project in Serbia was thrown a lifeline. Whether the project goes into production is still in dispute, much like the prospects for lithium.  

Glencore finally got a piece of Teck Resources last year, but while highly profitable at the moment, coal is not exactly the future of mining. 

With geopolitics and global trade entering ever more dangerous territory, Glencore may find its trading business beginning to throw off cash. The Swiss company, which has for decades been negotiating commodity trading waters few are willing to wade into may also want to avoid the Las Bambas effect.  

The prospects of an IPO for Vale’s base metals spin-off seems to be vanishing into the distance and is now scheduled “going into 2027”. Moreover, the $25 billion to $30 billion promised spending to build up the business seems lavish with copper and nickel’s medium term prospects less than inspiring.   

The other 5

Southern Copper, part of conglomerate Grupo Mexico, seems unlikely to be toppled from the third spot any time soon while fellow copper specialist Freeport-McMoRan edged Glencore out of the top 5. 

One out of only five listed companies with a copper production target for 2024 above one million tonnes, fourth-placed Zijin’s management seems to hold to the belief that in a boom and bust industry diversity is still the key to success. 

The rapidly growing company’s latest acquisition target is another billion dollar lithium miner, the $6.4 billion market cap Shenzhen-listed Zannge. The Zannge approach follows the rather controversial takeover of the giant Manono lithium project in the DRC which Australia’s AVZ Minerals claim was unlawful.  

Lithium stocks made the worst performing list their own during 2024 and the ranks of the battery metal producers have thinned. Already a crowded space, and with deep-pocketed Big Oil taking an active interest, most notably the new Ma’aden and Aramco deal, lithium will be tightly contested in the years ahead. Surging demand notwithstanding.   

Amman Mineral continues its run up, piercing the top 10 for the first time after gaining 24.7% in 2024, and 360% since its debut in Jakarta in early 2023. Some froth has disappeared from the copper-gold company’s valuation as losses from its peak at the end of Q2 last year now top $13 billion. 

While First Quantum Minerals ended up the clear leader among the best performers as the prospects of the re-opening of Cobre Panama mine become brighter, Polish copper major KGHM leaving the Top 50 in Q4 puts a cap on a what-could-have-been year for copper stocks.  

Not that shiny

The value of precious metals and royalty companies climbed by a modest $18.4 billion or 7.2% in 2024, compared to gold’s 27% run up and silver’s 22% charge.

Gold stocks’ relative weakness against the gold price is a perennial problem for the industry exemplified by the world’s top two producers Newmont and Barrick, which lost ground in 2024. 

Apart from missed targets and rising production costs at both firms, Barrick is also dealing with severe problems in Mali where it is halting its Loulo-Gounkoto mine in a dispute with the West African country’s military rulers.

While Barrick moves into copper (upper guidance for 2024 is 210kt) and Newmont trims its portfolio, Agnico Eagle continues to pick up assets large and small.

On a dollar basis Agnico is the best performing stock in the Top 50, adding $12.6 billion in value in 2024 (versus $9.3 billion for Zijin and $8.8 billion for India’s Vedanta) and enters the top 10 for the first time.  

Were it not for the limited tradability of stock in Russia’s Polyus, which greatly underperformed its peers on an ounce for ounce basis (the Moscow-based company’s 2024 target is 2.8moz) the sector’s standing in the ranks would also be greater. 

The position and annual performance of South Africa’s Goldfields were also hurt by exaggerated moves in its stock and the South African rand on the day the snapshot was taken. The Johannesburg-based company is off to the races in the opening weeks of 2024, jumping by 14% for a $13.3 billion valuation. 

Alamos Gold joined the top 50 for the first time in Q3 last year and with a more than 50% jump in value in 2024 now appears firmly ensconced in the top 50 with a valuation of $8.1 billion at the end of the quarter. 

The second quarter’s newcomer Pan American Silver (following its absorption of Yamana Gold) is also likely to be a permanent fixture.

Uzbekistan is readying an IPO for Navoi Mining and Metallurgy Combinat – the world’s fourth largest gold mining company and significant uranium producer in 2025. NMMC debuted a $1 billion bond offering in September, marking the first global debt market issuance from a gold mining company since June 2023.

Navoi should easily join the ranks of gold producers in the top 50 thanks to ownership of the world’s largest gold mine, Muruntau, and annual production of 2.9 million ounces at grades and per ounce extraction costs the envy of the sector.  

NOTES:

Source: MINING.COM, stock exchange data, company reports. Share data from primary-listed exchange at close Dec 30/31, 2024 close of trading converted to US$ where applicable. Percentage change based on US$ market cap difference, not share price change in local currency.  

As with any ranking, criteria for inclusion are contentious. We decided to exclude unlisted and state-owned enterprises at the outset due to a lack of information. That, of course, excludes giants like Chile’s Codelco, Uzbekistan’s Navoi Mining (the gold and uranium giant may list later this year), Eurochem, a major potash firm, and a number of entities in China and developing countries around the world.

Another central criterion was the depth of involvement in the industry before an enterprise can rightfully be called a mining company.

For instance, should smelter companies or commodity traders that own minority stakes in mining assets be included, especially if these investments have no operational component or warrant a seat on the board?

This is a common structure in Asia and excluding these types of companies removed well-known names like Japan’s Marubeni and Mitsui, Korea Zinc and Chile’s Copec. 

Levels of operational or strategic involvement and size of shareholding were other central considerations. Do streaming and royalty companies that receive metals from mining operations without shareholding qualify or are they just specialised financing vehicles? We included Franco Nevada, Royal Gold and Wheaton Precious Metals on the basis of their deep involvement in the industry.

Vertically integrated concerns like Alcoa and energy companies such as Shenhua Energy or Bayan Resources where power, ports and railways make up a large portion of revenues pose a problem. The revenue mix also tends to change alongside volatile coal prices. Same goes for battery makers like China’s CATL which is increasingly moving upstream, but where mining will continue to represent a small portion of its valuation.  

Another consideration is diversified companies such as Anglo American with separately listed majority-owned subsidiaries. We’ve included Angloplat in the ranking but excluded Kumba Iron Ore in which Anglo has a 70% stake to avoid double counting. Similarly we excluded Hindustan Zinc which is listed separately but majority owned by Vedanta.

Many steelmakers own and often operate iron ore and other metal mines, but in the interest of balance and diversity we excluded the steel industry, and with that many companies that have substantial mining assets including giants like ArcelorMittal, Magnitogorsk, Ternium, Baosteel and many others.

Head office refers to operational headquarters wherever applicable, for example BHP and Rio Tinto are shown as Melbourne, Australia, but Antofagasta is the exception that proves the rule. We consider the company’s HQ to be in London, where it has been listed since the late 1800s.

Please let us know of any errors, omissions, deletions or additions to the ranking or suggest a different methodology.