Financial Mail writes that a tenfold increase in its cash pile in the space of a year is probably the most obvious sign that the lean times are firmly behind Anglo American Platinum (Amplats).  

But the platinum producer has travelled a painful journey to transform itself and CEO Chris Griffith is determined to avoid the mistakes of the past.  While platinum prices continue to languish at multiyear lows, the rocketing prices of palladium and rhodium, with the benefit of a weaker rand, helped the miner produce a bumper set of half-year results this week.  Besides a 120% jump in half-year headline earnings, Amplats kept cost increases to 6% — lower than mining inflation of 7.5%.  But it will be tested as wage negotiations kick off in earnest.  The majority union, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), has this year upped its hallmark minimum wage demand of R12,500 a month to R17,000.  While the good fortune of the company undeniably puts it in a weakened negotiating position, Griffith says the miner will be mindful of the long-term implications of any agreement.  "As prices go up, they also come down and what we will be very careful about is that we don’t embed unsustainable cost inflation that when prices do come down … that we then have to start retrenching again."  Instead, Griffith notes that one-off payments or benefits are likely to be part of the settlement that the company envisages.

• Read the full original of Lisa Steyn’s report in the above regard at BusinessLive

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page