South African miners face a conundrum: increasing palladium and rhodium output to take advantage of soaring prices risks depressing the already fragile market for sister metal platinum.
Under a new supply deal signed with Freeport-McMoRan, major Chinese smelters have accepted the lowest processing fees to turn mined ore into finished metal seen since 2011.
Before the 2011 Arab Spring uprising, Tunisia was one of the world’s largest producers of the fertilizer component, creating as much as 8.2 million tons per year.