Business
South Africa: AMPLATS to sell strike-hit mines
AMPLATS parent Anglo American had already signaled its intention to reduce its troubled platinum portfolio. The sale suggests Anglo American has little appetite for a long and costly campaign to make the generally older South African platinum mines more efficient.
The platinum mining industry has been struggling in the face of depressed prices for the precious metal, used for emissions-capping catalytic converters in automobiles. A buyer would inherit a three-year wage agreement with the hard-line Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union union (AMCU).
AMPLATS has revealed that it lost over 420,000 ounces to the strike, which also affected rivals Impala Platinum and Lonmin; in addition its first-half headline earnings had dropped to 60 cents per share, a fall of almost 90 percent which it had flagged in advance.
Source: Reuters
