Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe has correctly called on police to pull out all the stops in their investigation of the horrific killing of six mineworkers and the injuring of 44 others on Monday, April 2, when the bus in which 50 Modikwa Platinum Mine employees were travelling was brutally petrol-bombed.

The bus was transporting the employees from the Ga-Maroga village, in Mpumalanga, to the Modikwa mine when the vicious act of anarchy took place.

It is extremely important that police get to the bottom of why arsonists, who pretended to be mineworkers, boarded the bus, petrol-bombed it and then fled.

A possible motive for murdering mineworkers in this way is to scare them and their colleagues to such an extent that they are too afraid to return to work.

And why would they want to do that?

One reason could be that they have illegal mining intentions.

Interestingly, Mantashe told journalists during a visit to the area that he would be meeting with Police Minister Bheki Cele to launch a unit to combat illegal mining and also spoke of the urgent need for those who masterminded the bus attack to be identified.

The Sword of Damocles has been hanging over the head of the Modikwa mine for some time.

It has not been doing well financially and, given the extremely low current platinum price of $910/oz and the relatively strong rand, the situation at Modikwa is likely to have worsened since last year’s poor performance.

One of the traditional leaders in the area, Chief Masea Mohlala, has pleaded with owners African Rainbow Minerals and Anglo American Platinum not to close the mine and also to step up security.

There is growing concern about underground platinum mines in general. Many have been running at a loss for some time. Although the lower production of platinum group metals has curtailed supply, this has not resulted in higher prices.

On the contrary, the price continues to decline somewhat mysteriously.

More market transparency is necessary to discern the exact stockpile position, which continues to be elusive and hopes of price improvement are continually dashed.

In the global quest to clean the air of cities, platinum and diesel engines were joined at the hip, which has created powerful demand for platinum in particular, but since the Volkswagen emissions scandal broke in 2015, the price of platinum has worsened.

A strong increase in the demand for platinum is what is desperately needed to avert the shocking killings that occurred at Modikwa – surely a rise in the platinum price is not that far away?