By: OrePulse

Valterra Platinum reported a 41% year-on-year drop in third-quarter refined platinum-group-metal output, to 576,900 ounces, in a production update released on October 23. The Johannesburg-based producer said the decline largely reflected processing maintenance work and an annual stock count that were shifted into the quarter.

Own-mined concentrate production fell 5% year-on-year to 511,900 ounces, the company said, citing safety-related stoppages after a fatal fall-of-ground incident at the Tumela section of its Amandelbult operation in July. Chief executive Craig Miller described the incident as "unacceptable."

Total PGM production, covering metal in concentrate across the 5E basket plus gold, declined 6% to 804,300 ounces for the quarter, while purchases of third-party concentrate dropped 7% to 292,400 ounces.

Quarterly sales volumes dropped 27% to 683,300 ounces. The company said inventory drawdowns helped offset the decline; it did not specify current stock levels. Over the nine months to date, refined production held steady compared with the prior year, and sales matched the year-earlier period, the company said.

The company kept its full-year outlook the same, still targeting 3.0 million to 3.4 million ounces of concentrate and refined metal combined for 2026.

Cost pressures were also evident. Valterra said unit cash operating costs would likely finish near the top of its previously guided range, equivalent to between 19,000 and 20,000 rand per PGM ounce. The company pointed to higher costs for explosives, drill steel, chemicals and fuel amid the Middle East conflict, compounding the cost effect of output lost to the safety stoppages. It is targeting an all-in sustaining cost of about 1,050 U.S. dollars per 3E ounce.

Pricing gains partly cushioned the lower volumes. The quarter's realized basket price climbed 24% in dollar terms and 15% in rand terms from a year earlier, to 38,815 rand per PGM ounce, equivalent to 2,383 U.S. dollars. For the nine months to date, the dollar basket price is up 60% at 2,683 U.S. dollars per ounce, while the rand basket price has risen 47% to 43,967 rand per ounce.

The gains were driven chiefly by iridium and ruthenium, both used in emerging technology applications, Valterra said. The realized iridium price for the three months to September 30 reached 7,720 U.S. dollars per ounce, up from 4,287 U.S. dollars a year earlier. Ruthenium nearly doubled to 1,583 U.S. dollars per ounce from 799 U.S. dollars. Prices for the larger-volume metals in the basket fell from the prior quarter but remained above year-earlier levels, the company said.

Chrome, a byproduct of PGM mining, also performed well: Valterra's chrome concentrate output increased 7% to 277,000 tons in the quarter, while year-to-date chrome sales climbed 42% to 814,000 tons.

Other South African PGM and chrome producers reported similar trends this period. Northam Platinum reported a 17% increase in chrome production for its 2026 financial year, helped by increased throughput at Eland Platinum. Sibanye-Stillwater has said it aims to double chrome output from roughly 2.3 million tons annually. Southern Palladium's revised prefeasibility study for the Bengwenyama project forecasts chrome output climbing to about 1 million tons a year, from 350,000 tons in the earlier study, taking chrome to roughly 19% of total production once a second development phase is finished.