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Sibanye Stillwater (NYSE:SBSW) would be forced to shutter its Montana palladium mine if prices fail to rebound soon, CEO Neal Froneman said Wednesday, according to Bloomberg.
“The future of Stillwater remains in the balance,” the CEO said when asked at a London conference about the outlook for the Montana mine. “If there’s no correction in the price soon, as strategic as it is, we will have to put it on care and maintenance.”
Froneman had said in March that the Montana operation remained a “strategic asset” and that it was “not due for closure at this stage.”
Prices for palladium, which is used extensively in catalytic converters that curb auto emissions, have plunged ~70% from a March 2022 peak as future demand is called into question by the shift to electric vehicles.
Sibanye (SBSW) took a $2.1B writedown on its unprofitable U.S. assets earlier this year, citing the impact of weakening metal prices and operational challenges at its U.S. PGM and South African gold operations.