JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Final regulations that are anticipated to benefit the platinum group metals (PGM) operations of Sibanye-Stillwater in Montana have been published by the US Treasury.

The final regulations concerned are those within Section 45X (S 45X) of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) published on Thursday, October 24.

“We welcome the amendments to the S 45X regulations made by the US Treasury and applaud its foresight and willingness to understand our industry and operations,” Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman stated in a media release to Mining Weekly.

“We firmly believe that such proactive and supportive legislation will deliver real benefits for mining and processing critical minerals in the US. This will ensure the future sustainability and growth of the regional critical minerals value chain in a responsible manner.

“The final release of S 45X is particularly significant for our group. By providing essential financial support for our US PGM operations as we focus on reducing costs and increasing productivity to stabilise our US PGM operations, we will be able to secure the long-term viability of these strategic assets,” added Froneman.

In August 2022, the US Congress passed the IRA to encourage the domestic production of qualified clean energy components.

This was followed by the US Treasury introducing S 45X of the IRA, which proposed a 10% advance manufacturing production credit (AMP credit) for the production of products including palladium and platinum which are classified as critical minerals.

In December 2023, additional guidance was provided, which excluded the extraction costs of producing critical minerals (primary mining) from those costs eligible for the 10% AMP credit, with the final refiner of critical minerals entitled to claim most of the AMP credit, resulting in a much narrower benefit for the industry.

The omission of extraction costs from the proposed S 45X credit regulations excluded the vast majority of the costs incurred by the US PGM operations from being eligible resulting in little financial benefit or support for the operations.

This omission led the Johannesburg- and New York-listed Sibanye-Stillwater to file extensive written submissions to the proposed regulations, participating and lobbying Congress and government for amendments to the proposed regulations to allow for the inclusion of costs associated with extracting, processing, recycling, as well as refining of critical minerals.

“Pleasingly, the final IRA and S 45X regulations published yesterday, appear to have adopted the proposed amendments submitted by the group, allowing for the inclusion of extraction costs when claiming the critical minerals production AMP credit along with processing and refining costs.

“While we’re still examining the final S 45X regulations thoroughly with our tax advisors, these amendments seem very favourable and are likely to provide substantial relief for the US PGM operations in Montana, supporting their continued operations and long-term sustainability,” Sibanye-Stillwater stated.

In a separate development, the US Interior Department this week also gave final approval to ioneer's Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine in Nevada, which unlocks a $490-million equity investment from Sibanye-Stillwater to fund the project as well as a $700-million loan from the US Department of Energy.

The US Geological Survey has labelled lithium a critical mineral vital for the US economy and national security.