RBPlat’s earnings per share surged 577% to 338 SA cents for the six months to the end of June from a loss of 70.8 SA cents in the same period in 2019. This was achieved in the face of the loss of 45 days of production time to the lockdown, which cost the group 54,000 ounces in output.But PGM producers have benefited from palladium’s climb to record highs in February of more than $2,600 an ounce, while rhodium, which is much rarer, was more than $13,000 an ounce at one point in March.
“South Africa has enjoyed favourable terms of trade shock in the recent quarter, with a strong increase in the costs of exports accompanied by a notable decrease in import costs. The latest unit value indices data shows that the index for exported commodities rose by 10.6% y-o-y in May. The main contributors to the annual increase were metal products, machinery & equipment and ores & minerals ,” NKC African Economics said in a research note.
Among other things, this can help shore up the rand at a time when it does not have a whole lot going for it. South Africa’s mining industry has a sordid and brutal history of racially based exploitation. Yet at this juncture in the 21st century, it is no bad thing to sit on the world’s largest PGM deposits.