Business

832% jump in profits for South African mining giant

Jonathan Hoyle

 ·28 Aug 2026

Northam Platinum Holdings, a major player in South Africa’s mining industry, has seen its year-on-year profit rise by over 830%.

The company was founded in 1977 and has three primary mining operations in Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and the North West.

Across its mining and administrative operations, the company employs approximately 24,600 permanent staff.

Within its operations, the group works in both mining and refining, with two smelter furnaces at its Zondereinde mine and several chrome concentrators.

The group primarily mines platinum group metals (PGMs), which include metals often found alongside platinum, such as Palladium and iridium.

In its latest financial results for the year ended 30 June, Northam reported sales revenue of just under R54 billion, an increase of approximately R21 billion from 2025.

Its profit for the year reached R13.9 billion, roughly an 832% increase from the previous financial year’s R1.49 billion.

The operating profit also rose by 293.8% to R14.2 billion, which the company attributed to higher sales prices and improved production volumes.

The company also saw its basic earnings per share increase by around 824%, which was reported at R35.26 per share, and diluted earnings per share rose to R34.59.

Headline Earnings Per Share (HEPS) reached R30.44 for the 2026 financial year, up from R3.80 in the prior period.

The increases in revenue and profit came as Northam saw an 8% increase in total metal volume sold, which rose to approximately 1.1 million ounces.

Northam said the financial improvement came from “Deliberate and prudent financial management, through disciplined liquidity management and capital allocation”.

Northam Platinum is the latest among several PGM mining companies to report strong financial results for 2026, following record platinum prices at the start of the year.

A record year for platinum

Several platinum mining groups have reported strong financial results for 2026, following January’s record high platinum prices.

The platinum price rose sharply at the start of 2026, peaking above $2,800 per ounce at the end of January.

The price has since settled, currently trading at roughly $1,878 per ounce, but the sharp rise gave mining operations a strong boost.

Companies such as Valterra Platinum have seen revenue increase sharply, and headline earnings rose by roughly 1,600% in its latest interim results.

Along with higher platinum prices, Northam said its strong results were due to increased production volumes.

Northam said in its integrated report that the current global AI boom would support platinum mining groups, given the use of platinum in electronics.

It said platinum is a critical component for hard disk drives used in AI data centres, and is a key resource for producing proton exchange membrane fuel cells.

“As AI scales at dizzying heights, PGMs are playing an increasingly instrumental role in this transition, from data storage to power resilience and beyond,” it said.

“Fears of AI can be reframed as an opportunity to unlock new and unexpected platforms for PGM demand going forward, by innovating a cleaner, greener, fairer future.”

While the Northam group saw impressive earnings, its core company recorded increased losses for the 2026 financial year.

In 2025, the company recorded losses of approximately R18.4 million, which extended to R20.3 million in 2026.

These losses in the core company were due to sundry expenditure and did not have a major impact on the group’s overall R13.8 billion profit.

Northam Platinum financial results