It's my understanding that SAf and Russia have the main deposits of the platinum metals in the world. So, presumably, that's why Anglo is clinging on to its SAf mines (and even adding to them, if possible). If you want platinum you have to go where platinum is!
Your last comment is very interesting but, most certainly, I cannot answer it --- in fact, I don't think anyone can, at this stage. ANC government has certainly mooted the idea of "use it or lose it" but it may just be hot air, right now. It would certainly be a disaster for the industry if mining companies had to forfeit their ore bodies simply because they were not being worked.
Apropos political risks, as I mentioned earlier, Anglo, and the other mining houses too, are very used to dealing with this government. Surprisingly, the ANC has given permission for all the major SAf companies to "emigrate" to London. I, and many others, do not see how such a move can be of any benefit to SAf but, in some kind of way, the ANC must believe it does. Reason given was that the companies could borrow more cheaply in order to expand. Press comment lauded the ANC's approval as being very "far-sighted"! Of course, they would say that.
However, there must be a quid pro quo and that could be the devious plan --- the intention to grab all or some of the unused ore reserves of the mining houses and give them to "black empowerment" groups. I don't say it is, only that it could be. It's difficult to know whether it will be more rewarding, in future, for a company to operate in SAf as foreign-owned or as locally owned. Perhaps being foreign owned escapes the grabbing claws.
The ANC is obsessed with race and political correctness and their major economic thrust (as far as I can see in my cynical way) is to chase whites away so that they leave behind their properties and their goods. Cuba seems to be their model for the future SAf. In this regard, as result of the destruction of Johannesburg CBD by the ANC policy of "Africanization" of the city (which, in practical terms, means criminals, vagrants, hobos, prostitutes, drug-dealers and hawkers from all over Africa have virtually taken over the place), Anglo, for example, has lost actual billions of rands in destroyed property values. Compared to this, the loss they will sustain from the expropriation of ore reserves is probably very small. |
