Prior to 1st January, 1995, Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Company Limited, “JCI”, one of the leading mining finance houses in South Africa, controlled and managed three platinum group metals producing companies: Rustenburg Platinum Holdings Limited, Lebowa Platinum Mines Limited and Potgietersrust Platinums Limited. On 1st January, 1995, the Anglo American Corporation of South Africa, the controlling shareholder of JCI, restructured JCI forming three separate companies: a platinum mining operation, the Anglo American Platinum Corporation Limited, “Amplats”; a gold, coal and base metals mining operation, “JCI Ltd”, and an industrial and property investment holding company, “Johnnie”. Amplats is controlled by the Anglo American Corporation of South Africa.

Johnson Matthey’s links to the South African platinum mining industry stretch back to the discovery of platinum-bearing deposits in the Bushveld Igneous Complex in 1924. The subsequent founding of Rustenburg Platinum Mines in 1931 to exploit the Merensky Reef marked the start of an enduring relationship between Rustenburg, the largest platinum producer in the world, and Johnson Matthey as agent, customer and refiner of the platinum group metals and base metals produced from the mining operations at Rustenburg.

The fledgling South African platinum industry suffered a severe blow in 1932 with the depression-induced collapse of the platinum price on international markets. As a result, mining operations at Rustenburg were suspended until the end of 1933 when they were recommenced on the advice of Johnson Matthey.

In 1938 Rustenburg’s first major expansion programme, to 20,000 tons per month, was completed and the first smelter furnace and converter unit were commissioned. At this point the material delivered to Johnson Matthey changed from platinum group metal concentrates to the less bulky converter matte.

During the Second World War years, 1939 to 1945, mine production remained steady at around 25,000 tons per month, but as a result of improvements in Johnson Matthey’s processing and refining technology, production of refined platinum increased to some 40,000 ounces per annum.

After the war an upsurge in platinum demand, initially from the chemical industry and later from other industrial sectors, resulted, over the next 30 years, in an ongoing series of expansions in production at Rustenburg. Platinum output at Rustenburg doubled between 1947 and 1949, in part by the acquisition in 1949 of the operations of the Union Platinum Mining Co. Ltd. A decision to double the output again was taken in 1951 (at which time Rustenburg was producing ore at a rate of about 70,000 tons per month). At the same time agreement was reached with Johnson Matthey to form a jointly held company, Matte Smelters (Pty) Ltd, to erect and operate a plant in South Africa to produce saleable nickel and copper and a high grade platinum group metals refinery feed from a portion of the matte produced by Rustenburg. The balance of the Rustenburg matte continued to be exported to Johnson Matthey in the United Kingdom for processing. The Matte Smelters plant was commissioned during 1954/1955.

The platinum requirements of the oil industry in the mid-1950s led to two further expansion programmes at Rustenburg, in 1955/56 and 1956/57. At this time it was also decided by the Board of Johnson Matthey, with the encouragement of the Directors of Rustenburg, to compile technical and scientific information on all the forms of platinum and the other platinum group metals. As part of this initiative the quarterly journal, Platinum Metals Review, was founded, and the first issue duly appeared in January 1957.

In 1958 the market experienced a sudden downturn attributable to a sharp reduction in offtake by the oil industry. Production at Union Section was temporarily suspended, and the output at Rustenburg was halved. However, increased industrial demand for platinum emerged again during the early 1960s and Rustenburg responded by undertaking another series of production expansions from about 1963 onwards, with platinum output eventually reaching 1 million ounces by 1970. These expansions included the exploitation, under tribute, which is a form of royalty agreement, of the mineral rights held by Brakspruit Platinum (Pty) Ltd, adjacent to the Rustenburg property. The assets and mineral rights of Brakspruit Platinum were eventually acquired by Rustenburg in 1972.

In 1969 a platinum group metals refinery, financed 80 per cent by Johnson Matthey and 20 per cent by Rustenburg, was commissioned at Wadeville in South Africa to treat a portion of Rustenburg’s platinum group metal output from the Matte Smelters plant. The balance of the Rustenburg material continued to be refined by Johnson Matthey at Royston in the U.K. In 1972 Rustenburg and Johnson Matthey formed a jointly held company, Matthey Rustenburg Refiners (Pty) Ltd, “MRR”, to acquire and operate the platinum group metals processing facilities owned and operated by Johnson Matthey and Rustenburg. Accordingly, MRR acquired the Wadeville platinum group metals refinery, Matte Smelters and Johnson Matthey’s smelting and refining operations at Brimsdown and Royston in the U.K.

The platinum market slumped severely in 1971 causing Rustenburg to cut production by almost 50 per cent to some 550,000 ounces per annum. Fortunately, the successful development of auto-catalyst technology by Johnson Matthey and Engelhard during the early 1970s represented the beginning of a major new application for platinum in 1975. In 1972, to meet this chal-lenge, Rustenburg decided to expand production beyond the previous 1 million ounces per annum level, by developing its Amandelbuit Section, some 120 km north of the Rustenburg mining operations. Rustenburg’s production capacity was further increased in 1977, when the company acquired the mining operations of Atok Platinum Mines (Pty) Ltd, situated on the eastern limb of the Bushveld Complex.

Due to the expansion in Rustenburg’s platinum output during the 1970s, Rustenburg and Johnson Matthey decided to replace the 23-year old Matte Smelters plant with a new MRR base metals refinery which would process Rustenburg’s entire matte output into saleable nickel, copper, cobalt and a high grade platinum group metals refinery feed. The new base metals refinery became operational in 1981/82.