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Sibanye-Stillwater

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Sibanye-Stillwater
Company typePublic
JSE: SSW[1]
NYSE: SBSW[2]
IndustryMining
FoundedNovember 2012
Headquarters
Johannesburg
,
South Africa
Area served
South Africa
Key people
Neal Froneman
(CEO)
Vincent Maphai
(Chairman)
ProductsPlatinum
Palladium
Rhodium
Gold
Number of employees
84,775 (2020)
Websitesibanyestillwater.com

Sibanye-Stillwater is a multinational mining and metals processing Group with a diverse portfolio of mining and processing operations and projects and investments across five continents. The Group is also one of the foremost global PGM auto catalytic recyclers and has interests in leading mine tailings retreatment operations.

Sibanye-Stillwater has established itself as one of the world's largest primary producers of platinum, palladium, and rhodium and is also a top-tier gold producer. It produces other platinum group metals (PGMs) such as iridium and ruthenium, along with chrome, copper and nickel as by-products. The Group has recently begun to build and diversify its asset portfolio into battery metals mining and processing and is increasing its presence in the circular economy by growing and diversifying its recycling and tailings reprocessing operations globally.

History

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In 2012, Gold Fields Limited unbundled its subsidiary, GFI Mining South Africa Proprietary Limited (“GFIMSA”), which was then renamed Sibanye Gold Limited (“Sibanye Gold”), and consisted of the KDC (formerly Kloof) and Beatrix mines, as well as an array of support service entities in South Africa.[3] "Gold Fields stockholders were given one share in Sibanye for each of their Gold Fields shares."[4] The three South African mines transferred from Gold Fields to Sibanye are:

The company immediately embarked upon a strategic growth plan which saw the 2013 acquisition of the Cooke operations from Gold One[5] as well as the WitsGold acquisition (Burnstone project)[6] of 2014.

In April[7] 2016 the company entered the PGM space, with an all-share offer for Aquarius Platinum.[8] (comprising Kroondal, Platinum Mile, a 50% shareholding in Zimbabwe's Mimosa mine and a number of exploration projects), as well as the acquisition of the Rustenburg operations from Anglo American Platinum Limited.

On 30 August 2017, following the successful purchase of the Stillwater Mining Company in Montana, Sibanye Gold Limited began trading as Sibanye-Stillwater and reorganized its operations by region – Southern Africa and the United States.[9]

In June 2019, Sibanye-Stillwater acquired Lonmin Plc, London, UK, a top tier PGM producer. The enlarged group is the world's largest primary producer of platinum and rhodium, one of the largest producer of palladium and the leading recycler and processor of spent PGM catalytic converter materials.[10]

February 2021 saw the Group enter the battery metals industry with an investment into and partnership with Keliber,[11] a leading European Lithium project based in Finland.

According to their 2020 annual report, the company produced 3 million ounces of PGM and 0.98 million ounces of gold.[12]

In 2020, the group employed 84,775 people, mostly in South Africa. Thus, Sibanye-Stillwater is one of the top four private sector employers in South Africa and the largest industrial employer in the state of Montana.[13]  

Sibanye-Stillwater's primary listing is on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in South Africa. The company trades under ticker codes JSE:SSW (previously SGL) and NYSE:SBSW as of its relisting on February 19, 2020.[14]

Controversies

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Marikana miners' strike (Lonmin)

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Main article: Marikana massacre

In 2012, what started as a peaceful protest resulted in a massacre. The Marikana massacre[15] was the killing of thirty-four miners by the South African Police Service (SAPS) on 16 August 2012, during a wildcat strike at the Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana, Rustenburg, North West province, South Africa. The violence started because of a history of antagonism and violence between the African National Congress-allied National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and its emerging rival, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU). At the Marikana platinum mine, operated by Lonmin at Nkaneng near Rustenburg, 3,000 workers walked off the job on 10 August after Lonmin failed to meet with workers.[16] On 11 August, NUM leaders allegedly opened fire on striking NUM members who were marching to their offices.[17][18][19] The killing of two miners was reported in the South African media as a central reason for the breakdown in trust within the union amongst workers.[17][20] Despite earlier contradictory reports, the clashes on the 11th are now acknowledged to be the first incidents of violence during the strike.

According to the Bench Marks Foundation, the violence erupted against a backdrop of a lack of employment opportunities for local youth, squalid living conditions, unemployment and growing inequalities.[21] It claimed the workers were exploited and this was a motivation for the violence. It also criticised the high profits when compared with the low wages of the workers.

2014 South African platinum strike (Lonmin)

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Main article: 2014 South African platinum strike

In 2014, a five-month-long platinum strike had resulted in the deaths of four people,[22] six stabbings,[23] and 24 billion rand ($2.25 billion) in lost revenue for the South African platinum industry. The GDP of South Africa contracted in the first quarter of 2014, pulled down by the steepest drop in mining production (25% of which 19% was directly attributable to the strike) in 50 years.[24][25] It was the first contraction since 2009.[26] Workers, most of whom already lived in poverty, lost around 11 billion rands ($1 billion) in wages.[27]

2018 safety incident

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In January 2018, a power outage caused by poor weather resulted in nearly 1000 miners being trapped underground. This occurred at the Beatrix gold mine near Welkom, South Africa.[28] Some of the trapped miners were rescued the day of the incident, and the remaining 955 were rescued after around 30 hours when power was restored to one of the lifts.[29] The incident resulted in pressure from labour unions, including the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, for mine management to address safety concerns before it can reopen.[30]

2018 fatalities

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In early 2018, 20 out of the 45 mining deaths in South Africa occurred at Sibanye Stillwater. Then Minister of Mineral Resources, Gwede Mantashe, deplored the figure: “We are very worried about the fact that out of 45 fatalities thus far‚ 20 are from one company.”[31] Another death was reported a few weeks later.[32]

2019 strike

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In 2019, a violent five-month strike resulted in nine deaths,[33] an estimated 62 houses burnt down,[34] and several wounded, which including burned children. The strike started as a dispute over wages but became the center of inter-union violence. Sibanye-Stillwater spokesperson James Wellsted said more than 500 mineworkers, which belonged to NUM and AMCU, and their families had to be evacuated because the situation was so unsafe.

Carbon footprint

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Sibanye Stillwater reported Total CO2e emissions (Direct + Indirect) for 31 December 2020 at 6,433 Kt (-652 /-9.2% y-o-y).[35] There is little evidence of a consistent declining trend as yet.

Sibanye Stillwater's Total CO2e emissions (Direct + Indirect) (in kilotonnes)
Dec 2016 Dec 2017 Dec 2018 Dec 2019 Dec 2020
5,316[36] 6,402[37] 5,463[38] 7,085[39] 6,433[35]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Sibanye Stillwater Ltd | Johannesburg Stock Exchange".
  2. ^ "NYSE". www.nyse.com.
  3. ^ Sibanye-Stillwater[permanent dead link‍] "Company Announcements", Sibanye-Stillwater, November 29, 2012. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
  4. ^ Minto, Rob "Gold Fields and Sibanye: low start", Financial Times, February 11, 2013. Retrieved April 11, 2018.]
  5. ^ "Sibanye Gold acquires Cooke operations from Gold One". 21 August 2013.
  6. ^ "Joint announcement: Sibanye Gold to make a cash offer to acquire the entire issued ordinary share capital of Wits Gold and cautionary announcement". 11 December 2013.
  7. ^ "Sibanye takes ownership of the Rustenburg Platinum Mines and implements management changes" (PDF). thevault.exchange. Westonaria. 1 November 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 April 2023. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  8. ^ "Sibanye Gold Agrees To Buy Aquarius Platinum For $294 Million". Kitco. 6 October 2015. Retrieved 13 May 2016.
  9. ^ Sibanye-Stillwater "History", Sibanye-Stillwater, November 29, 2012. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
  10. ^ MarketScreener. "Media release: Sibanye-Stillwater changes NYSE ticker symbol from SBGL to SBSW to highlight new corporate structure and diversified asset mix | MarketScreener". Retrieved 3 January 2021.
  11. ^ "Keliber".
  12. ^ Sibanye-Stillwater, Financial Annual Report (2020). "Annual reports". Sibanye-Stillwater. Retrieved 21 July 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ Sibanye-Stillwater, Integrated Report (2020). "Annual reports". Sibanye-Stillwater. Retrieved 21 July 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ "Finalisation of the Scheme relating to the internal restructuring of SGL" (PDF). thevault.exchange. 11 February 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 April 2023. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  15. ^ "South Africa's Marikana mine closed by 'intimidation'". BBC News. 27 August 2012. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  16. ^ "NUM: Lethal force ahead of Marikana shootings was justified". Mail & Guardian. 22 October 2012. Retrieved 23 October 2012.
  17. ^ a b Sacks, Jared (12 October 2012). "Marikana prequel: NUM and the murders that started it all". Daily Maverick. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  18. ^ "South Africa: Marikana massacre – a turning point?". Links. 27 August 2012.
  19. ^ "NUM shot at us – witness". Independent Online. 2 October 2012.
  20. ^ "Marikana 20 years in the making". Business Report. 21 October 2012. Retrieved 23 October 2012.
  21. ^ "Lonmin an example of exploitation". www.iol.co.za. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  22. ^ News, Taiwan (13 May 2014). "South Africa: 3 miners killed during strike | Taiwan News | 2014-05-13 17:42:01". Taiwan News. Archived from the original on 7 February 2022. Retrieved 7 February 2022. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  23. ^ "Three workers killed amid platinum belt strike - NUM". The Mail & Guardian. 12 May 2014. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  24. ^ "Union says wage deal to end South African platinum strike is imminent". Reuters. 13 June 2014. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 29 June 2014.
  25. ^ "Marcus warns on mine strike". Business Report. IOL. 10 June 2014. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  26. ^ "South Africa hit by engineering strike". BBC News. 1 July 2014. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  27. ^ Maylie, Devon (23 June 2014). "South African Platinum Miners Agree to End Strike". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  28. ^ Batchelor, Tom (1 February 2018). "Nearly 1,000 miners trapped underground in South Africa". The Independent. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  29. ^ Heiberg, Tanisha; Macharia, James (2018). "Workers trapped underground in South Africa gold mine rescued". Reuters. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  30. ^ Motau, Koketšo (2 February 2018). "Numsa demands closure of Sibanye-Stillwater mine amid probe". Eye Witness News. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  31. ^ "20 out of 45 mining deaths in 2018 have been at Sibanye-Stillwater mines: Mantashe". TimesLIVE. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  32. ^ Cotterill, Joseph; Sanderson, Henry (26 June 2018). "Sibanye-Stillwater's safety record under fire". Financial Times. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  33. ^ "Deadly cost of Sibanye-Stillwater gold miners' strike". The Mail & Guardian. 30 April 2019. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  34. ^ "South Africa's mines minister calls on police to quell violence at Sibanye mine". Reuters. 5 March 2019. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  35. ^ a b "Sibanye Stillwater's Annual Report for 2020Q4" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 July 2021. Alt URL
  36. ^ "Sibanye Stillwater's Annual Report for 2018Q4" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 September 2020. Alt URL
  37. ^ "Sibanye Stillwater's Annual Report for 2019Q4" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 February 2021. Alt URL
  38. ^ "Sibanye Stillwater's Annual Report for 2020Q4" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 July 2021. Alt URL
  39. ^ "Sibanye Stillwater's Annual Report for 2020Q4" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 July 2021. Alt URL
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