Sibanye-Stillwater

In 2012, Gold Fields Limited unbundled its subsidiary, GFI Mining South Africa Proprietary Limited ("GFIMSA"), which was then renamed Sibanye Gold Limited ("Sibanye Gold"), and consisted of the Kloof, Driefontein and Beatrix mines, as well as an array of support service entities in South Africa. "Gold Fields stockholders were given one share in Sibanye for each of their Gold Fields shares." The three South African mines transferred from Gold Fields to Sibanye are:

Beatrix gold mine

KDC mine (formerly Kloof)

Driefontein mine

The company immediately embarked upon a strategic growth plan which saw the 2013 acquisition of the Cooke operations from Gold One as well as the WitsGold acquisition (Burnstone project) of 2014.

In April 2016 the company entered the PGM space, with an all-share offer for Aquarius Platinum. (comprising Kroondal, Platinum Mile, a 50% shareholding in Zimbabwe's Mimosa mine and a number of exploration projects), as well as the acquisition of the Rustenburg operations from Anglo American Platinum Limited.

On 30 August 2017, following the successful purchase of the Stillwater Mining Company in Montana, Sibanye Gold Limited began trading as Sibanye-Stillwater and reorganized its operations by region – Southern Africa and the United States.

In June 2019, Sibanye-Stillwater acquired Lonmin Plc, London, UK, a top tier PGM producer. The enlarged group is the world's largest primary producer of platinum and rhodium, one of the largest producer of palladium and the leading recycler and processor of spent PGM catalytic converter materials.

Controversies

Marikana miners' strike (Lonmin)

In 2012, what started as a peaceful protest resulted in a massacre. The Marikana massacre was the killing of thirty-four miners by the South African Police Service (SAPS) on 16 August 2012, during a wildcat strike at the Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana, Rustenburg, North West province, South Africa. The violence started because of a history of antagonism and violence between the African National Congress-allied National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and its emerging rival, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU). At the Marikana platinum mine, operated by Lonmin at Nkaneng near Rustenburg, 3,000 workers walked off the job on 10 August after Lonmin failed to meet with workers. On 11 August, NUM leaders allegedly opened fire on striking NUM members who were marching to their offices. The killing of two miners was reported in the South African media as a central reason for the breakdown in trust within the union amongst workers. Despite earlier contradictory reports, the clashes on the 11th are now acknowledged to be the first incidents of violence during the strike.

According to the Bench Marks Foundation, the violence erupted against a backdrop of a lack of employment opportunities for local youth, squalid living conditions, unemployment and growing inequalities. It claimed the workers were exploited and this was a motivation for the violence. It also criticised the high profits when compared with the low wages of the workers.

Following Sibanye-Stillwater's acquisition of Lonmin in 2019, Sibanye-Stillwater launched The Marikana Renewal process in 2020, led by Thabo Makgoba, the Archbishop of Cape Town, to address the Marikana legacy, to rebuild trust and to provide the socio-economic redress necessary to secure a long-term future for all stakeholders.https://www.renewalprogramme.co.za/honour/history

2018 fatalities

In early 2018, 20 out of the 45 mining deaths in South Africa occurred at Sibanye Stillwater. Then Minister of Mineral Resources, Gwede Mantashe, deplored the figure: "We are very worried about the fact that out of 45 fatalities thus far, 20 are from one company." Another death was reported a few weeks later.