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Russian sanctions have pushed palladium to a record high, but one of the top producers of the metal sees some problems with the market.
Neal Froneman is the CEO of Sibanye-Stillwater (JSE: SSW). He spoke to Kitco on Thursday.
Sibanye-Stillwater is one of the world's largest primary producers of platinum, palladium, and rhodium and is also a top-tier gold producer. It produces other PGMs, such as iridium and ruthenium, along with chrome, copper, and nickel as by-products.
Russia produces over a third of the world's supply of palladium, a key metal for making automotive catalysts. The metal hit $2,700 an ounce this week. Palladium's prices have already surged 24% this year.
The problem is that auto manufacturers in Europe are being disrupted by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
"My biggest concern—I think we are going to see significant supply-chain disruptions, which is going to impact the demand side," said Froneman, who noted that some European automakers have had to halt production since some auto parts are make in Ukraine.
"All-in-all it is probably going to have more of a negative impact, unfortunately." Read More
Source: Kitco News
Timestamp
0:30 - I want to start with macro. What's the Russia-Ukraine conflict going to do the platinum group metal supply, namely all-important palladium which we use in our catalytic converters.
3:25 - You had a great year-end. You had record profits. Stock is up over 50% year to date. How’s cost inflation? We are over $110 a barrel for oil. When could you see this becoming a real concern or is it just good to be in commodities since it's all going up?
6:18 - You call out South Africa for its "carbon-intensive electricity generation from Eskom." That could prove problematic to the whole mining industry.
7:10 - Appian Captial Advisory announced this week that it served notice on Sibanye-Stillwater (JSE:SSW) this week for not closing on the Santa Rita nickel complex in Brazil. I assume you are constrained on what you can say. What happens next?
8:40 - I see Sibanye making a lot of deals with a variety of metals: nickel, lithium. Can you be diversified in the battery metal space, since the chemistry and refining can be so specialized?
10-00 - I assume your competitors are mostly the diversified Australian miners? Australian companies seem to be more aggressive in the battery metal space.
North American nickel development companies see a real choke point with processing. What’s the major missing pieces for energy transition?
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