Stillwater had 210 employees by the end of the year. After the changeover in management, the company made it a policy to hedge no more than 50 percent of production for no more than two years ahead, a strategy designed to placate investors seeking to take advantage of the "upside" of higher prices. SMC lowered its palladium and platinum production costs to a record $147 per ounce in the second quarter of 1998, while producing a record 120,000 ounces. A new $6.8 million smelter was under construction 40 miles away in Columbus, Montana. Sibanye-Stillwater is an independent, global precious metals mining group and the only US miner of platinum group metals (PGM).
By 1984, the partners had agreed to spend another $45 million to open a mine on property still owned by Anaconda.
However, prices fell sharply during the year. Manville Corp. had become half owner in Stillwater, and the company was considering selling its interest in the mine. Stillwater Mining serves customers in the United States.
A fall in the price of gold made PGM mining that much more attractive to investors. By 1998, SWC was developing its East Boulder platinum mine in Montana's Absaroka Mountains. Finally, we can read about how these great companies came about with Company Histories.. Toronto-based LAC Minerals Ltd. bought Anaconda's one-third share and acquired a 5 percent net profit interest for $15 million in the autumn of 1985. The company is based in South Africa with US headquarters in Columbus, MT. Sibanye-Stillwater is also the largest global recycler of PGMs derived from spent catalytic converters. SMC, which had by then spent $100 million to develop the mine, had not turned a profit since 1990 and lost $5.63 million on revenues of $53.8 million in 1993. The Stillwater igneous complex is a large layered mafic intrusion (LMI) located in southern Montana in Stillwater, Sweet Grass and Park Counties.The complex is exposed across 30 miles (48 km) of the north flank of the Beartooth Mountain Range.The complex has extensive reserves of chromium ore and has a history of being mined for chromium. Stillwater was expected to become fully operational in 1992 and produce 150,000 ounces of palladium and 50,000 ounces of platinum a year, together worth $30 million in 1986 prices. All rights reserved.
As consumers, we often take for granted all the hard work that goes into building a great company.
The company's hedging policy (agreeing to sell future production at fixed prices) had prevented it from capitalizing on the upturn in PGM prices. Two other expansion projects were in the works: expanding the Stillwater mine at a cost of $75 million and expanding the smelter and base metals refinery in Columbus, Montana. Receive our County's event and business-related information!We promise that we'll be the only ones to email you and will never sell or give your information awayStillwater County Chamber of Commerce • PO Box 783 • Columbus, Montana • 406.322.4505
AsPrices began a steep rise in June 1985 on news of racial unrest in South Africa.
Sibanye-Stillwater is an independent, global precious metals mining group and the only US miner of platinum group metals (PGM).
Click on the job title to learn more about the opening. Employers / Post Job. As a result of the plunge in PGM prices, SMC scaled back plans for its East Boulder underground mine, halving its planned ore production rate to 900 tons a day.
Sign in. The investors were rewarded handsomely and quickly as platinum and palladium prices rose. In the next 20 years, Manville and its partners would spend $40 million exploring and developing the complex.