BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has steadily increased its exposure to miners of platinum group metals (PGMs) in recent weeks as institutional investors feast on the sector’s wave of optimism. Sibanye-Stillwater on Wednesday said the US-based fund manager had increased its stake to just more than 5%, requiring the group to make a public announcement in terms of JSE regulations. Sibanye shares rose as much as 7.7% on the news and were trading 4.2% higher at R81.02 in mid-afternoon trade.
The announcement comes a week after Impala Platinum (Implats) said BlackRock owns more than 5% of its shares. The fund manager’s recent buying comes amid a broader vote of confidence in South Africa’s once-struggling PGM sector, underpinned by a growing consensus that prices will remain at record highs in the near term. Bank of America and Switzerland-based UBS both revised their platinum price forecasts sharply higher earlier in January.
Tariff fears and a persistent market deficit have fuelled a 178% surge in platinum’s price over the past year in a dramatic rebound in sentiment. Sibanye, Implats and other PGM heavyweights undertook huge job cuts in 2024 as concern over the shift to electric vehicles kept prices on the back foot for more than two years. Catalytic converters, which filter harmful gases from internal combustion engines, are the metals’ primary source of demand.
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In 2024, more than 10,000 employees were fired across the sector, which is by far the biggest employer in South Africa’s broader mining industry, as operations slashed production. With platinum now flirting with a record $3,000/oz and palladium trading above $2,000/oz, its best level in more than three years, the sector has returned to prices that restore profitability, even for higher-cost producers. The sector’s newfound earnings are freeing up capital to keep previously struggling operations alive and invest in further growth. Sibanye, which mines PGMs in South Africa, Zimbabwe and the US, and who also enjoys substantial exposure to gold’s soaring price, reported adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation tripled to R9.9bn for the quarter to end-September.
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