The gulf between stakeholders such as the government, producers, workers and mining communities is widening whilst violence and protests in the platinum belt persist. It is with this background that the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) convened its yearly PGM roundtable to address some of these issues and seek to build pathways to remedy the political economy juggernaut and stimulation of PGM applications such as fuel cell technology and the global hydrogen economy.
Mining Weekly on the 19th December 2017
Platinum group metals (PGM) mining finds itself in a precarious situation. The price of platinum is in decline, producers’ profits have dropped significantly, the operational costs have been increasing, the threats of retrenchments are constant, the current regulatory uncertainty around the Mining Charter and the long-drawn amendments to the Mineral & Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) all paint a disturbing picture.