Valterra Platinum

The company was formed when Johannesburg Consolidated Investments unbundled in 1995. Its platinum interests became Amplats, later renamed Anglo American Platinum. Anglo American was the company's majority shareholder.{{cite news|url=

https://mg.co.za/article/1995-03-03-jcis-unbundling-gets-lacklustre-response/|title=

JCI’s unbundling gets lacklustre response|date=3 March 1995|newspaper=Mail and Guardian|access-date=5 June 2025}}

On 5 October 2012, Anglo American Platinum made 12,967 striking South African miners redundant.{{cite news|title=Amplats fires 12,000 South African platinum miners|work=BBC News |date=5 October 2012 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19848915|access-date=5 October 2012}} In July 2014, Amplats announced it would sell many of its South African mines following the negative effect of five months' worth of strikes on the firm's hopes of becoming profitable.{{cite news|url = https://www.reuters.com/article/us-anglo-platinum-results-idUSKBN0FQ0WT20140721|title=Amplats to sell strike-hit South African mines|year=2014|work=Reuters}}

The company was demerged from Anglo American, as Valterra Platinum, on 31 May 2025.

Anglo American Platinum filed SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) against a South African public interest lawyer Richard Spoor, who represented indigenous communities affected by platinum mining on tribal land. The actions include an application in the High Court for a so-called gagging order, ostensibly to prevent him further injuring the good name and reputation of the corporation, the lodging of complaints with the Law Society of unprofessional behaviour and the lodging of a civil action for damages for some $500,000. Anglo American Platinum also obtained an ex parte (without notice) order interdicting two tribal chiefs from interfering with their mining operations and had them arrested on charges of intimidation and trespass. Subsequently, followers of the two tribal chiefs were shot, beaten and arrested for protesting the mine's presence on tribal land.{{Cite web |date=2006-07-14 |title=Business Report - Platinum firms threaten to gag Richard Spoor |url=http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3329978 |access-date=2022-03-21 |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060714065017/http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3329978 |archive-date=14 July 2006 |url-status=dead}}

In August 2007, British charity War on Want published a report accusing Anglo American Platinum's parent company Anglo American of profiting from the abuse of people in the developing countries in which the company operates. In the report, Anglo American Platinum is accused of displacing communities in South Africa, including forcing the entire Magobading community off its land and into the Mecklenberg township.{{cite web|url=https://waronwant.org/sites/default/files/Anglo%20American%20-%20The%20Alternative%20Report.pdf|title=Anglo-American: the Alternative Report|publisher=The War on Want|access-date=21 March 2022}}

{{Main|Marikana massacre|2014 South African platinum strike}}

In September 2012, following the Marikana massacre in which thirty-four workers were fatally shot by the South African Police Service, workers at Anglo American Platinum staged a strike demanding wage increases at Anglo's partially owned Rustenburg mine. Mametlwe Sebei, a community representative, said in response to protests that at the mine "the mood here is upbeat, very celebratory. Victory is in sight. The workers are celebrating Lonmin as a victory." The strikers carried traditional weapons such as spears and machetes, before being dispersed by police using tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets against the "illegal gathering", according to police spokesman Dennis Adriao. Central Methodist Church Bishop Paul Verry said that one woman who was struck by a bullet died. At the same time, an unnamed organiser for the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union of protests at Impala Platinum said: "We want management to meet us as well now. We want 9,000 rand a month as a basic wage instead of the roughly 5,000 rand we are getting."{{cite web |title=S Africa's Lonmin miners return to work – Africa |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/09/201291915482540917.html |publisher=Al Jazeera}} Anglo Platinum then said in a statement that: "Anglo American Platinum has communicated to its employees the requirement to return to work by the night shift on Thursday 20 September, failing which legal avenues will be pursued."

A wave of strikes occurred across the South African mining sector. As of early October, analysts estimated that approximately 75,000 miners were on strike from various gold and platinum mines and companies across South Africa, most of them illegally. Citing workers failing to attend disciplinary hearings, on 5 October 2012, Anglo American Platinum—the world's biggest platinum producer—announced that it would fire 12,000 people.{{cite news |date=5 October 2012 |title=South Africa's Amplats fires 12,000 strikers as unrest deepens |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-safrica-strikes-idUSBRE8930W320121005 |access-date=5 October 2012}} It said it would do so after losing 39,000 ounces in output – or 700 million rand ($82.3 million; £51 million) in revenue. The ANC Youth League expressed anger at the company and pledged solidarity with those who had been fired:

{{blockquote|This action demonstrates the insensibility and insensitivity of the company... which has made astronomical profits on the blood, sweat and tears of the very same workers that today the company can just fire with impunity. Amplats is a disgrace and a disappointment to the country at large, a representation of white monopoly capital out of touch and uncaring of the plight of the poor.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19848915|title=Amplats fires 12,000 South African platinum miners|publisher=BBC News|date=5 October 2012|access-date=5 October 2012}}}}

Reuters described the move as "a high-stakes attempt by the world's biggest platinum producer to push back at a wave of illegal stoppages sweeping through the country's mining sector and beyond".{{cite news |author=Flak, Agnieszka |date=5 October 2012 |title=South Africa's Amplats fires 12,000 strikers, union leader shot |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-safrica-strikes-idUSBRE8930W320121005 |access-date=6 October 2012}} The announcement made the rand fall to a {{frac|3|1|2}}-year low. The events were expected to put further political pressure on President Jacob Zuma ahead of the leadership vote in December's ANC National Conference.

According to the Bench Marks Foundation, the violence erupted against a backdrop of a lack of employment opportunities for local youth, squalid living conditions, unemployment and growing inequalities. It claimed the workers were exploited and this was a motivation for the violence. It also criticised the high profits when compared with the low wages of the workers.{{Cite web |title=Lonmin an example of exploitation |url=https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/companies/lonmin-an-example-of-exploitation-1365221 |access-date=2022-02-07 |website=www.iol.co.za |language=en}}

In late January 2014 thousands of employees belonging to Anglo American Platinum and other platinum mines went on strike, demanding a basic salary of R12,500 ($880), the same salary that miners wanted in 2012.{{Cite web |date=2012-09-05 |title=Marikana miners: No R12 500, no peace pact |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2012-09-05-marikana-miners-no-r12-500-no-peace-pact/ |access-date=2022-03-21 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} The five-month-long platinum strike resulted in the deaths of four people,{{Cite web |date=2014-05-13 |title=South Africa: 3 miners killed during strike |website=Taiwan News |url=https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/2480780 |access-date=2022-02-07 |archive-date=7 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220207184043/https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/2480780 |url-status=dead }} six stabbings,{{Cite web |date=2014-05-12 |title=Three workers killed amid platinum belt strike - NUM |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2014-05-12-three-workers-killed-amid-platinum-belt-strike-num/ |access-date=2022-02-07 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} and 24 billion rand ($2.25 billion) in lost revenue for the South African platinum industry. The GDP of South Africa contracted in the first quarter of 2014,{{cite news |date=June 10, 2014 |title=Marcus warns on mine strike |work=Business Report |publisher=IOL |url=http://www.iol.co.za/business/companies/marcus-warns-on-mine-strike-1.1701283 |access-date=July 1, 2014}} pulled down by the steepest drop in mining production, 25% of which 19% was directly attributable to the strike, in 50 years.{{cite news |date=June 13, 2014 |title=Union says wage deal to end South African platinum strike is imminent |work=Reuters |url=http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-safrica-strike-idUKKBN0EO0HV20140613 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305142324/http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-safrica-strike-idUKKBN0EO0HV20140613 |url-status=dead |archive-date=5 March 2016 |access-date=June 29, 2014}} It was the first contraction since 2009.{{Cite news |date=2014-07-01 |title=South Africa hit by engineering strike |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/business-28103095 |access-date=2022-02-07}} Workers, most of whom already lived in poverty, lost around 10.6 billion rand ($1 billion) in wages.{{Cite news |last=Maylie |first=Devon |date=2014-06-23 |title=South African Platinum Miners Agree to End Strike |language=en-US |work=Wall Street Journal |url=https://online.wsj.com/articles/south-african-miners-end-strike-1403538168 |access-date=2022-02-07 |issn=0099-9660}}

Anglo American Platinum reported Total CO2e emissions (Direct + Indirect) for the twelve months ending 31 December 2020 at 3,943 Kt (-493 /-11.1% y-o-y).{{Cite web |title=Anglo American Platinum's Sustainability Report for 2020Q4 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106144320/https://www.angloamericanplatinum.com/~/media/Files/A/Anglo-American-Group/Platinum/investors/annual-reporting/2021/aap-integrated-annual-report-2020.pdf |url=https://www.angloamericanplatinum.com/~/media/Files/A/Anglo-American-Group/Platinum/investors/annual-reporting/2021/aap-integrated-annual-report-2020.pdf|archive-date=January 6, 2022 }} [https://analytics.exerica.com/App/Name/Anglo%20American%20Platinum/Total%20CO2e%20Emissions%20-%20Location-Based%20Scope%201%20%2b%20Scope%202/2020Q4/12 Alt URL] Emissions have been on a declining trend since 2015.

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.valterraplatinum.com/ Official site]

{{Anglo American plc}}

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Category:Non-renewable resource companies established in 1955

Category:Mining companies of South Africa

Category:Palladium mining companies

Category:Platinum mining companies

Category:1955 establishments in South Africa

Category:Companies in the FTSE/JSE Top 40 Index