Rhodium

What a difference a black swan can make.

Aquarium Platinum (LON,ASX, JSE:AQP) and Xstrata (LON: ) are the latest casualties of the ongoing labour unrest in South Africa. Both companies announced Friday they have suspended operations, as police swooped on striking protesters.

The gold mining industry has been digging its own grave by telling just half of the real cost story, Gold Fields (NYSE:GFI) CEO Nick Holland told the audience Thursday at this year’s Denver Gold Forum in Colorado.

No U.S. president has waxed as poetically about mining the moon the way John F. Kennedy did about landing on it. But that didn't stop four entrepreneurs from making their best pitches Sept. 11 to two empty chairs.

Mametlwe Sebei, one of the main leaders of South Africa's striking platinum miners, urged workers to go on a national strike that he said would "bring mining companies to their knees.”

Hundreds of striking miners forced Anglo American Platinum, the world's largest producer, to halt operations at its four mines on Wednesday, as labour unrest spread in South Africa's biggest industry.

The body of a man slashed to death was found Tuesday at Lonmin’s (LON:JSE) Marikana platinum mine in South Africa's North West province, where a protracted wildcat strike has cost the life to 44 people.

South African police are braced for possible violence ahead of Monday's back-to-work deadline for striking workers at Lonmin's flagship platinum mine, where 44 people died in labour strife last month, most of them at the hands of police.

Platinum miner Lonmin's (LON:JSE) has signed an agreement to end a nearly four-week platinum-mine strike and return to Marikana mine by Monday, but key parties didn't participate, undermining the government-backed attempt put an end to a violent labour dispute that has left 44 people dead.