Anglo American Platinum's (Amplats) future “looks good” as a stand-alone miner as the platinum major prepares for a demerger from parent company Anglo American by June, says CEO Craig Miller.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Investing in African Mining Indaba, Miller said Amplats was working hard to bring that into reality, and is progressing with a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange while it maintains a primary listing on the JSE.
“We are still headquartered here in South Africa; we are still registered as a South African company, our roots are in South Africa. Just because Anglo American has shareholders in the UK and in Europe, it is sometimes a little bit easier for them to trade our shares in the UK,” he said.
Miller said the group was working around how it could bring support services like procurement and IT into the business from Anglo American. “We will have a lot of those activities in our business, and we will really set up to be a successful PGM (platinum group metals) producer.”
It is an opportunity for us to rebirth and refresh through the new name.
— Craig Miller, Amplats CEO
Miller said Amplats should have a new name by the middle of the year as it is not able to retain the name Anglo American. “It is an opportunity for us to rebirth and refresh through the new name.”
He said the group’s focus would remain in the PGM space. These include palladium, rhodium, iridium used in catalytic converters; fuel cells; and pharmaceuticals.
“We are the leading PGM producer, we will continue to be the leading PGM producer. I think we will invest in our assets to ensure we are realising the most value we can, not only for our shareholders but for our employees and our communities, and government. We are not going to deploy capital, and we are not thinking of looking for a mine in Timbuktu. Our focus is here, and we need to be good at what we do here. That is our focus, and everybody is really excited about it,” said Miller.
As part of a restructuring process after a failed takeover bid by Australian miner BHP Billiton, Anglo American plans to unbundle Amplats and demerge or sell its 85% stake in diamond producer De Beers after more than 100 years. Anglo plans to focus solely on premium iron ore, crop nutrients and copper. It has also exited steelmaking coal in Australia.
As a stand-alone, Amplats will control investment and capital allocation. “The difference for us is we can invest in PGMs. I'm not going to compete for capital in the Anglo American group with copper or with fertilisers, diamonds or iron ore,” said Miller.
As it forges a new future, Amplats is expected to invest in its operations, including the mineral-rich Mogalakwena mine in Limpopo. “It has got decades of life, it is polymetallic. It not only has PGMs but it has base metals, and we're doing a lot of exploration on that at the moment. Going forward, we need to see how we create more value from that. That's where we'll look to invest.
“We're also looking at spending R5bn on our Mototolo mine in Limpopo. We're making an investment at Amandelbult in downstream processing, where we are able to smelt and refine our product.”
The group announced cost-cutting measures in response to low metal prices a year ago. As part of becoming an independent standalone company, the group has undertaken a restructuring process that is scheduled for completion in March.. “It affects 150 jobs that are being reviewed. There are more roles and activities coming into Anglo Platinum like IT and supply chain.”
Miller is bullish about the outlook for PGMs in light of the energy transition, particularly in producing hydrogen. “Roughly 10% of future automotive production is fuel cell electric vehicles; it will create about 5-million platinum ounces of demand. The automotive sector today doesn't consume 5-million ounces of platinum; that is a huge growth segment for us.
“The demand outlook is really positive. The energy transition is going to be bumpy, it is not going to be linear, while we are going through this process. The utilisation of internal combustion cars or hybrids, I think, will be around for much longer. As a consequence of that you will see continued demand for PGMs.”
Amplats, which provides PGMs used in fuel cell electric vehicles, in late 2023 enterered into a partnership with Sasol and BMW to drive the green hydrogen economy with the launch of a pilot fleet of hydrogen vehicles in South Africa.
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