Platinum deficit to reach 1.2 million ounces in 2020 – report

The company also expects to halve the amount of job cuts previously announced in the gold division to around 3,000.

A plan to build Zimbabwe’s biggest platinum mine at a cost of about $4 billion is floundering because a military stake in the project has deterred potential backers.

A rise in producer profits is likely to provoke higher wage demands from labour unions including the militant AMCU.

Higher prices for a basket of Lonmin's metals and a weaker South African rand helped the London-listed miner to an annual pre-tax profit in 2018, its first since 2013.

Prices of the metal mostly used in autocatalysts are off to the best start to a year since 2016 as investors flock back to exchange-traded funds.

Specialist materials firm Johnson Matthey forecast a 127,000-ounce platinum shortfall this year, after surpluses of 372,000 and 44,000 ounces in 2018 and 2017 respectively.

As a result of the survey, 235 hectares in 11 new claims were added to the northern portion of the Saturday Night project.

Coalition has gone to court challenging a Trump administration’s decision that opened the door to Twin Metals’ copper, nickel and platinum project in a wilderness area of Minnesota.

1,800 workers at the Rustenburg mine were trapped for as long as 10 hours on Tuesday after an accident with an underground transport system.