Jaco Prinsloo

JACO Prinsloo must be feeling just a tad frustrated with the market’s lack of appreciation of his efforts at this well-run operation. Over the past two years the platinum producer has steadily delivered good operating results from its various dump retreatment operations, consistently paid dividends and funded growth out of cash while building up those cash reserves in the teeth of the adverse platinum group metals (PGM) market. But, just as consistently, the Sylvania share price has been on a steady slide, dropping from 110 pence a share at the start of 2023 to around 40p/share in December 2024. 

Prinsloo is now looking to increase revenues by including chrome recoveries from the Thaba JV and is also weighing up three projects on the Northern Limb of the Bushveld Complex that could be developed into underground mines. One — Hacra — seems likely to be sold while an updated scoping study on the most promising — Volspruit — estimated a 14-year life of mine operation with a pre-tax net present value of $69m. 

A decision to proceed to a prefeasibility study is next up. A follow-on decision to actually go ahead with a new mine under current PGM market conditions would be a brave one. Prinsloo acknowledges that, saying the projects could be sold or the mining “contracted out if that’s where the shareholder value is”. He says he’s also looking at “alternative metals where we can apply our technology”.