Tharisa lifts FY2026 PGM and chrome guidance after strong Q4

Tharisa has guided to between 145,000 oz and 165,000 oz of platinum group metals for its 2026 financial year, above the 138,300 oz it produced in FY2025, alongside chrome concentrate guidance of 1.5 million to 1.65 million tonnes. The upgrade followed a strong fourth quarter in which PGM production rose 19.7% quarter-on-quarter to 41,300 oz and chrome output climbed 2.9% to 407,200 tonnes.

A co-product model built for volatile prices

Tharisa's business model, mining chrome and PGMs together from the same orebody at its flagship mine in South Africa's North West province, gives it a natural hedge against swings in either commodity. That balance was tested in FY2025, when PGM prices averaged $1,615/oz, up 18.6% year-on-year, even as metallurgical-grade chrome concentrate prices fell 11% to $266 a tonne. Chief executive Phoevos Pouroulis said the group had "closed the year on a strong note, delivering robust production results in the final quarter," attributing the improvement to gains across mining, milling, grade and recovery.

Underground transition under way

The guidance came as Tharisa pressed ahead with a much larger structural shift: a underground mining transition at its namesake mine, backed by $547m of committed capital, intended to extend the operation's life well beyond the 2035 date at which its open pits are expected to be exhausted. First ore from the new underground section was targeted for the second quarter of calendar 2026.

The FY2026 guidance upgrade mattered because it came at a moment when investors were increasingly differentiating between PGM producers on the basis of production growth rather than simply exposure to higher prices. Tharisa's ability to lift both PGM and chrome output simultaneously, while its larger, single-commodity platinum peers largely held volumes flat and returned cash to shareholders instead, reinforced the market's view of the company as one of the few genuine production-growth stories left in the sector. That growth narrative was reinforced further by Tharisa's parallel progress on the Karo Platinum project in Zimbabwe, which stood to add a second, larger production base once complete. Investors watching the sector broadly welcomed the update as evidence that at least one mid-tier producer was willing to chase growth rather than simply bank higher prices.

Sources

• Mining Weekly: Tharisa sets higher PGM production target for 2026, 14 Oct 2025

Photo: Chromitite ore from the Bushveld Complex, the source of the chrome Tharisa mines alongside PGMs. kevinzim / Kevin Walsh, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.