Rhodium party still going strong

Amplats shareholders have this metal to thank for their interim dividends.

- David McKay

Shareholders in Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) have rhodium to thank for the R175 per share interim dividend declaration – equal to 100% of the R46.4bn record headline earnings the Anglo American subsidiary reported last week.

The metal was priced as high as $30 000 per ounce during the six-month period and therefore comprised 44% of total revenue – an astonishing contribution as Amplats is expected to produce 4.2m to 4.4m ounces of total platinum group metals (PGMs) in the current financial year.

Can rhodium be expected to continue at this clip? Amplats said in a presentation that the 72 000 oz rhodium deficit of last year would become a small surplus this year before returning to a fresh deficit in 2022, albeit of a much smaller scale than in 2020.