Sibanye-Stillwater

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:

• Beatrix gold mine
• KDC mine (formerly Kloof)
• Driefontein mine

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 2016 the company entered the PGM space, with an all-share offer for Aquarius Platinum.[7] (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.[8]

On 30 August 2017, following the successful purchase of the Stillwater mine 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]

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.[15] 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.[16] 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.[17]

Sibanye Stillwater reported Total CO2e emissions (Direct + Indirect) for 31 December 2020 at 6,433 Kt (-652 /-9.2% y-o-y).[18] There is little evidence of a consistent declining trend as yet.

• sibanyestillwater.com