Kodal Minerals’ Mali lithium mine remains on track for Q1 2025 production
Once in production, the Bougouni project will become the first lithium mine in Mali.
The price of platinum lost more than $20 an ounce and sister metal palladium also eased on Thursday after two of the world’s top producers made a fresh offer to workers who have been on strike for 12 weeks.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, platinum futures for July delivery – the most active contract – in afternoon trade exchanged hands for $1,419.70 an ounce, down $18 compared to yesterday’s close and near the day’s lows.
On the day before more than 70,000 South African workers went on strike at Anglo American Platinum (LON:AAL), Imapala Platinumm (OTCMKTS:IMPUY) and Lonmin (LON:LMI) which together account for almost 50% of the world’s production, platinum was trading at $1,450 an ounce.
Number one producer Amplats and Implats, the second-biggest, said in separate statements on Thursday they had upped a previous offer of 9% to annual increases of 7.5% to 10%.
Reuters reports the new wage hike would push the basic salary of all underground workers to R12,500 ($1,100) a month by 2017.
The union has been calling for an immediate doubling of the minimum wage to R12,500, guaranteed for three years.
The three mining companies have so far lost a combined R13.5 billion ($1.3 billion) in revenue, while lost employee earnings come to R6 billion ($570m).
Roughly 10,000 ounces of production are lost each day the strike drags on and even after a resolution to the bitter dispute can be found it would take months for the affected mines to return to capacity.
Year to date platinum is up just over 3%, but remains below where it was this time last year.
Palladium also eased back on Tuesday with June futures slipping back below $800 an ounce, down 0.5% on the day.
The metal, often used as substitute for platinum in catalytic converters, is up 10% year to date.
