Sibanye Stillwater (also known as SSW) is an international leading precious metals mining company, is one of the world's largest platinum producers, and from the production of PGM extract chromium metal, focusing on the recovery and reuse of tailings. At present, the Group is also diversified into battery metal mining and processing, with the main mines being the Marikana and Rustenburg mines.
In February 2022, the Group acquired the Sandouville plant of Erhman in Normandy, France, which produces electrolytic nickel and nickel chloride.
Recently, the South African metal company Spangstillwater announced the third quarter report of 2023, the company produced a total of 2352 metal tons of nickel, an increase of 24.84%, an increase of 42.29%, including electrolytic nickel 1925 tons, nickel chloride 427 metal tons.
The cathode unit operational issues that affected the first half of 2023 have been resolved, which has allowed production to level off in the third quarter. Overall, the plant is now stable from both a process and reliability point of view, with nickel recovery improving by 4% to 98.8%. However, a portion of production in the third quarter of 2023 was still affected by heavy rainfall.
Due to a general oversupply of electrolytic nickel, coupled with a slowdown in the electroplating industry, resulting in lower premiums in the third quarter of 2023, lower nickel prices impacted sales.
