Valterra normalises Mogalakwena output as Amandelbult recovers from floods

Valterra Platinum produced 743,500 oz of PGMs in the first quarter of 2026, up 7% year-on-year, while PGMs sold rose 60% to 791,400 oz as the group worked through inventory built up during the prior year's disruptions. The average basket price realised was R47,529, or $2,911 a PGM ounce, the highest level since the second quarter of 2021.

A tale of two mines

Performance diverged sharply between Valterra's two largest operations. Amandelbult, still recovering from severe flooding in February 2025, lifted production 43% year-on-year as normal operations resumed. Mogalakwena, the group's largest single mine, saw output fall 6% due to scheduled crusher maintenance, a reminder that even the world's largest open-pit PGM operation is not immune to routine operational setbacks. Base metal by-products told a more uniformly positive story, with nickel production up 41%, copper up 26% and chrome up 56% year-on-year.

Managing costs through winter

Valterra said it had deliberately deferred routine first-quarter maintenance and stock counts to the third quarter to avoid South Africa's higher winter electricity tariffs, a small but telling example of how deeply Eskom's pricing structure now shapes operational planning across the industry. The group also blended lower-grade stockpiled ore at Mogalakwena to manage head grades, and bought 10% more third-party concentrate for its refineries.

Chief executive Craig Miller said "stable production and cost discipline" would underpin shareholder returns amid geopolitical uncertainty and input cost inflation, and the group left its full-year guidance unchanged at 3 million to 3.4 million ounces, with all-in sustaining costs guided at around $1,050 per 3E ounce. The quarter illustrated a pattern that would recur across Valterra's results through 2026: modest, carefully managed production growth, overshadowed by the far larger swings in reported earnings driven by the PGM price cycle. With Amandelbult's recovery now largely complete, investors were left watching Mogalakwena's underground feasibility study as the more significant driver of Valterra's medium-term output. Analysts said the quarter offered reassurance that Valterra's largest operations were returning to a more predictable production rhythm after more than a year of weather- and maintenance-related disruption. Analysts said the quarter offered reassurance that Valterra's largest operations were returning to a more predictable production rhythm after more than a year of weather- and maintenance-related disruption, even as they continued to watch Mogalakwena's underground feasibility study as the larger swing factor for the years ahead.

Sources

• Miningmx: Valterra normalizes quarterly production after last year's flooding, 23 Apr 2026

Photo: Merensky Reef ore of the type mined at Valterra's Bushveld Complex operations. James St. John, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.