JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – In the first three months of this year, Anglo American Platinum achieved a 36% higher price for its ruthenium, a relatively low-profile platinum group metal (PGM), which was placed on a new high pedestal at last month’s PGM Industry Day.

The rare silvery-white hard transition metal, which is one of the half-dozen platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium and osmium PGM affiliates, is battling to continue to keep its light under a bushel as its use in hydrogen’s transportation in particular begins to shine out.

While ruthenium is not consuming a lot of ounces now and forms a tiny part of the three-million to 3.4-million PGM ounces Anglo Platinum is guiding for the 12 months of 2025, the upbeat authors of a global white paper on the ammonia economy and ruthenium’s high ammonia cracking conversion efficiency, believe Ru will eventually come through in not only hydrogen, but also green chemistry and electronics.

Given far more prominence in the latest report of the primary Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed company, which is on its way to becoming the demerged Valterra Platinum with a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), was the word “flooding”.

Owing to the impact of heavy rains, which caused widespread flooding in the region, first-quarter PGM production at Amandelbult declined by 32% to 85 800 oz.

The significant rainfall and overflow of nearby river systems caused water ingress at Tumela mine, which overwhelmed pumping capacity, flooding certain parts of the underground and main pump station.

All operations at Amandelbult have since restarted, except for Tumela Lower, where de-watering activities were completed in mid-April and work has now shifted to infrastructure repairs, and mining operations are expected to commence from mid-year and fully ramp up in the third quarter. The process to finalise the insurance claim for the damage incurred is also well advanced.

Although total PGM production decreased by 17% against the prior period to 696 300 oz, on a like-for-like basis, to account for factors including the Amandelbult flooding, total PGM production decreased by 5%.

At the flagship Mogalakwena mine production was 21% lower compared with the fourth quarter of 2024 owing to heavy rainfall.

Mogalakwena’s four-element built-up head grade of 2.48 g/t was in line with expectations for the first quarter and the full-year blended grade remains on track to meet the 2.7 g/t to 2.9 g/t guidance.

Four Jameson cells were commissioned at Mogalakwena’s North Concentrator during the quarter as part of the mass pull and recovery optimisation strategy.

Once fully operational, this strategy is expected to produce a higher-grade concentrate enabling reduced concentrate volumes and smelting requirements while improving energy efficiency and reducing emissions.

Mototolo’s production increased by 7% to 66 200 oz, reflecting the benefits of the new seven-day mining shift cycle, implemented in the second quarter of 2024. The development of the Der Brochen project, which will replace infrastructure closures at Lebowa is progressing as planned, with production anticipated to ramp up in late 2025.

In Zimbabwe, Unki’s production decreased by 15% to 53 600 PGM ounces mainly because of the expected lower grades in the current mining area, as well as a combination of slightly lower recoveries and the impact of a five-day planned plant maintenance shutdown which impacted volumes milled. In the prior period, this maintenance was performed in the second quarter of 2024.

At the half-owned Modikwa mine, PGM production decreased by 11% to 29 400 oz primarily owing to lower concentrator plant recovery following the introduction of opencast material during the quarter. The opencast material, planned to be fully ramped up from the second quarter of 2025, was introduced to replace the volumes from the high-cost South 1 shaft infrastructure which is anticipated to be closed in the first half of the year.

Purchase of concentrate volumes decreased by 29% to 234 300 oz and refined production, excluding tolling, declined by 30% to 437 100 oz. Toll-refined PGM production increased by 30% to 208 200 PGM ounces.

Nickel production decreased by 11% to 4 200 t and copper production decreased by 6% to 3 100 t.

Chrome production decreased by 9% to 181 000 t on lower volumes from Amandelbult, which were partially offset by chrome production of 30 000 t at Mototolo.

PGM sales volumes, excluding trading, decreased by 30% to 493 700 oz. The average realised basket price of $1 533 per PGM ounce was 3% higher, driven by an 11% higher platinum realised price and the 36% higher ruthenium realised price.

Forecast for 2025 are three-million to 3.4-million PGM ounces, cash operating unit costs of between R17 500 per PGM ounce and R18 500 per PGM ounce, while all-in sustaining cost of between $970 per 3E and $1 000 per 3E ounce are being targeted.

“We expect to start trading on the LSE under the ticker symbol VALT on Monday, June 2,” Anglo American Platinum CEO Craig Miller reported in the first-quarter production release to Mining Weekly.