Impala Platinum Holdings Limited or Implats is a South African holding company that owns several companies which operate mines that produce platinum and platinum group metals, as well as nickel, copper and cobalt. Its most significant mine is the Impala mine in the North West province of South Africa. The company also owns or has interest in the Two Rivers mine and the Marula mine in the South Africa Bushveld Igneous Complex and the Mimosa mine and Zimplats in Zimbabwe, as well as the Impala Refining Services which smelts and refines metals for other companies. In December 2019, Impala Canada was formed, owned by the holding company, out of the acquisition of North American Palladium and its mine in Ontario, Canada.
Implats was formed in 1966 as a subsidiary of Union Corporation, which established a platinum mine in Rustenburg with an initial capacity of 100,000 oz per year.[2] It received technical advice from Canadian company Inco, while British bank Hambros provided financial advice.[3] The two, along with South African state-owned Industrial Development Corporation, each took a 10% share in the company.[4] In 1968, Implats entered into a prospecting accord with the Bafokeng tribe (now the Royal Bafokeng Nation) and obtained a lease for 12,000 ha of land, with production kicking off in July 1969.[5]
During the 1970s, legislation introducing new vehicle emission standards worldwide, including those introduced and pursued in the U.S. by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), increased global demand for platinum.[6] In 1974, Implats began supplying major motor manufacturer General Motors with up to 300,000 t oz of platinum and 120,000 t oz of palladium a year for devices to reduce exhaust pollution.[7]
On 26 January 1973, Bishopsgate Platinum Limited, of which Implats was a wholly owned subsidiary, was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). On 19 October 1978, Bishopsgate changed its name to Impala Platinum Holdings Limited (Implats).[8]
In 1990, Implats acquired an effective interest in Western Platinum and Eastern Platinum (collectively Lonhro Platinum Division, or Lonplats).[9] A full merger agreement with Lonplats was attained in 1995, but was subsequently blocked by the European Union in 1996.[10]
Between 2000 and 2004, Implats gained mineral rights to establish Marula Platinum and also acquired strategic stakes in Zimbabwean operations Zimbabwe Platinum (Zimplats) and Mimosa Mining Company. It entered into a joint venture with Anglovaal Mining (Avmin) to develop the Two Rivers Platinum project, and sold its stakes in Barplats Mines and Lonplats.
In 2003, Implats' parent company Gencor completed its "unbundling" after having amalgamated with Gold Fields in 1998.[11] Shareholders were given 8.8 Implats shares for every 100 Gencor shares they held.[12]
In March 2011, the government of Zimbabwe implemented laws which required local ownership of mining companies. Following this news, there were falls in the share prices of companies with mines in Zimbabwe, including Implats.[13]
In late January 2014, thousands of employees belonging to Impala Platinum and other platinum mines in South Africa went on strike, demanding a basic salary of R 12,500 (1,180$).[14]
The strike, the longest in the history of South Africa, ended in late June 2014 when the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) signed a three-year settlement deal with Impala Platinum and other platinum mine owners, which saw workers earning less than R 12,500 get a wage increase of R 1,000 ($95) per month for two years and R 950 ($90) per month in the third year.[citation needed]
In October 2019, Implats announced it would acquire the outstanding shares in Canadian-based North American Palladium Limited for $758 million.[15][16]
North American Palladium Ltd. was purchased by Johannesburg-based Impala Platinum Holdings Limited for CA$1 billion in 2019.[17] Under the terms of the deal, Brookfield Business Partners was paid $570 million for its 81% stake in the company and minority shareholders were paid $19.74 per share.[18] From that point on, the Lac des Iles mine would be operated by the new company called Impala Canada Limited.
Management
Since August 2018, Impala Platinum has been led by company directors Nico Muller (CEO) and Meroonisha Kerber (CFO). Kerber joined the company in August 2018 after her predecessor Brenda Berlin, who had served as CFO since 2011, resigned in February.[19][20]
Safety incidents
In 2007, two Implats employees were killed in a blast at the Clapham Shaft.[21]
In 2009, nine Implats employees were killed in a fall-of-ground incident at the Impala 14 Shaft at its Rustenburg mine.[22][23]
In 2012, Implats was charged with culpable homicide over the death of one of its workers five years prior. The charge was based on the report of a mining inspector, who claimed that mine bosses had not taken proper measures to ensure that the worker was safe when he was sent to install support bars under the overhang that collapsed on him.[24][25]
In 2016, four Implats employees were killed in a fire at the Rustenburg mine. Rescue teams were present, but the four had been overcome by smoke and never managed to escape.[26]
In 2020, the CEO of Impala Rustenburg, Mark Munroe was arrested for recalling employees too early, in violation of South Africa'sCovid-19 lockdown restrictions.[27] Munroe was later released on bail, and the charges against him were eventually dropped. For his decision to reopen the mines, Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe became the target of the National Union of Mineworkers.[28]
In 2021, three Implats employees were killed in a mud-rush at the Impala Rustenburg 6 Shaft, and two were hospitalized.[29]
In November 2023, 11 employees lost their lives in the Impala Platinum mine shaft accident when a cage carrying miners fell 200m down the shaft. Seventy-five were injured.[30]
Union related violence
In 2012, what started as a peaceful protest resulted in a massacre. The Marikana massacre[31] was the killing of thirty-four miners by the South African Police Service (SAPS) on 16 August 2012, during a wildcat strike at the Lonminplatinum 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.[32] On 11 August, NUM leaders allegedly opened fire on striking NUM members who were marching to their offices.[33][34][35] 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.[33][36] 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.[37] 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.
Impala Platinum declared the strike "illegal" and fired 13.000 workers that had participated, almost half of 30.000 employed in the town.[38]
In 2014, a five-month-long platinum strike had resulted in the deaths of four people,[39] six stabbings,[40] and 24 billion rands ($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.[41][42] It was the first contraction since 2009.[43] Workers, most of whom already lived in poverty, lost around 11 billion rands ($1 billion) in wages.[44]
In 2017, an AMCU treasurer was shot and killed outside an Implats platinum mine in Rustenburg.[45]
Carbon footprint
Impala Platinum Holdings reported total CO2e emissions (direct and indirect) of 3,645 kilotons on 30 June 2020 (-185 /-4.8% y-o-y).[46]
Impala Platinum Holdings's Total CO2e emissions (Direct + Indirect) (in kilotonnes)
Lonmin plc, formerly Lonrho plc, was a British producer of platinum group metals operating in the Bushveld Complex of South Africa. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange. Its registered office was in London, and its operational headquarters were in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Anglo American Platinum Limited is the world's largest primary producer of platinum, accounting for about 38% of the world's annual supply.
The Bushveld Igneous Complex (BIC) is the largest layered igneous intrusion within the Earth's crust. It has been tilted and eroded forming the outcrops around what appears to be the edge of a great geological basin: the Transvaal Basin. It is approximately two billion years old and is divided into four limbs: northern, eastern, southern and western. It comprises the Rustenburg Layered suite, the Lebowa Granites and the Rooiberg Felsics, that are overlain by the Karoo sediments. The site was first publicised around 1897 by Gustaaf Molengraaff who found the native South African tribes residing in and around the area.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is a mainly mining industry related trade union, an organisation of workers with common goals through organised labour, in South Africa. With a membership of 300,000 as of 2014, it is the largest affiliate of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).
The Royal Bafokeng is the ethnic homeland of the Bafokeng people, a Setswana-speaking traditional community. The monarchy covers 1,000 square kilometers (390 sq mi) in the North West Province of South Africa. The capital is Phokeng, near Rustenburg. "Bafokeng" is used to refer to both the tribal grouping as well as the land its members inhabit. The kingdom's current ruler is Kgosi (King) Leruo Molotlegi, who has reigned since 2000. The Bafokeng first settled in the Rustenburg Valley in c.1450AD, the presence of the ceramics in the area suggests the arrival of the Bafokeng in the Rustenburg Phokeng valley at about this time. Kgosi Tshukudu became the first king of a unified Bafokeng in 1750.
Mining in South Africa was once the main driving force behind the history and development of Africa's most advanced and richest economy. Large-scale and profitable mining started with the discovery of a diamond on the banks of the Orange River in 1867 by Erasmus Jacobs and the subsequent discovery of the Kimberley pipes a few years later. Gold rushes to Pilgrim's Rest and Barberton were precursors to the biggest discovery of all, the Main Reef/Main Reef Leader on Gerhardus Oosthuizen's farm Langlaagte, Portion C, in 1886, which kicked off the Witwatersrand Gold Rush and the subsequent rapid development of the gold field there.
Aquarius Platinum plc is a Bermuda-registered and headquartered mining business.
The SouthAfrican Mine Workers' Strike was a labour dispute involving mine workers of Witwatersrand in South Africa. It started on 12 August 1946 and lasted approximately a week. The strike was attacked by police and over the week, at least 1,248 workers were wounded and at least 9 killed.
North American Palladium Ltd. is a former Canadian mining company that operated between 1968 and 2019 and that since 1993 operated the Lac des Iles mine in the Lac des Îles igneous complex of the Thunder Bay District of Ontario. The company primarily mined and explored for palladium but also for gold. Platinum, silver, nickel, and copper are mined as by-products. The company was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange but was acquired by Impala Platinum in 2019.
The Marikana massacre was the killing of thirty-four miners by the South African Police Service (SAPS) on 16 August 2012 during a six-week wildcat strike at the Lonmin platinum mine at Marikana near Rustenburg in South Africa's North West province. The massacre constituted the most lethal use of force by South African security forces against civilians since the Soweto uprising in 1976 and has been compared to the 1960 Sharpeville massacre.
The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) was formed in Mpumalanga, South Africa, in 1998 as a breakaway faction of the COSATU-affiliated National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). It was formally registered as a union in 2001. According to Mining Weekly, the union sees itself as distinct from NUM in that it is "apolitical and noncommunist".
The Workers and Socialist Party (WASP) is a Marxist and Trotskyist political party in South Africa affiliated to International Socialist Alternative.
The KDC mine, formerly the Kloof mine, is a large mine located in the northern part of South Africa in Gauteng, near Carletonville, and represents one of the largest uranium reserves in South Africa having estimated reserves of 256.4 million tonnes of ore grading 0.0036% uranium.
The Marula Mine is a platinum mine located in the Limpopo province of South Africa. It is in the eastern limb of the Bushveld Igneous Complex, approximately 35km north-west of Burgersfort. The operation comprises two decline shaft systems which are used to access the UG2 reef.
Marikana is a town near Rustenburg, North West Province, South Africa.
On 15 November 2014 workers at South Africa's major platinum producers – Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum, and Lonmin – went on strike demanding that wages be immediately doubled. However, after five months of striking they settled for a more modest pay increase spread over three years. It was the longest and most expensive strike in South African history.
Senzeni Zokwana is a South African politician. He is a former Member of Parliament and served until May 2019 as the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, having been appointed by President Jacob Zuma in May 2014. He previously served as the President of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
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.
Msokoli Frans Baleni is a South African businessman and former trade unionist who was general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers between 2006 and 2015. Since 2007, he has been a member of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party.
An elevator accident occurred on 27 November 2023 at the Impala Platinum mine in Rustenburg, South Africa, when an ascending mine elevator fell 200 m down the number 11 shaft. Eleven miners were killed on the scene and 75 injured, with a 12th and 13th miners dying later in hospital. The elevator was stopped from falling further by automatic safety mechanisms, but the mechanisms failed when the counterweight became trapped, resulting in a sudden stop which led to the fatalities.
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