Notable mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and disposals in South African platinum and chrome, set against prices, output and the state of the freight network. Mining deal interest clusters in three waves. Underneath runs a second story: Transnet selling off non-core businesses under Maria Ramos, the procurement scandals that followed, and the private concessions now reopening rail and ports.
The Mining Charter and rising prices pull new owners in. ARM enters platinum through Modikwa and Two Rivers, Samancor Chrome changes hands, and Xstrata buys into both minerals.
Transnet sheds airlines, commuter rail, telecoms, property and the V&A Waterfront to become a freight company, and places its first big locomotive order in decades for the coal line.
Platinum falls below $1,000/oz. Sibanye buys Aquarius, Rustenburg and then Lonmin. Chrometco is recapitalised around Black Chrome, while Transnet's 1,064-locomotive deal balloons to R54.5bn.
Anglo spins off Valterra and platinum more than doubles. Transnet signs 11 private train operators and puts Durban, Richards Bay, Ngqura and Cape Town terminals out to private partners.
Deal bars count notable, publicly reported mining transactions in the ledger (acquisitions, mergers, JVs, disposals, restructurings). It is a curated tally, not a census, so read bar heights as relative interest. Items tagged "event" are listed but not counted.
Transnet & PRASA strip marks each disposal (filled square) and each tender, contract or concession (outlined diamond) in the ledger. Maria Ramos was Transnet group chief executive from 2004 to 2009, shaded on the strip and the rail panel.
Platinum price: annual average, USD/oz. 1990–2023 approximate LBMA averages; 2024 ($956) and 2025 ($1,294) published spot averages; 2026 is year-to-date (about $2,039).
Chrome output: South African chromite production, million tonnes (USGS). 1990, 2019, 2021 and 2023 checked; other years rounded. Stops at 2023.
Rail freight: Transnet Freight Rail tonnes railed, by financial year. 2000–2011 read from a Transnet chart presented to Parliament (approximate); 2012–2015, 2017 and 2023–2026 from Transnet figures as reported. 2016 and 2018–2022 are not plotted; the dashed segment bridges that gap. Road now carries about six tonnes for every tonne on rail, up from about four in 2008.
Sources: Anglo American and BHP Billiton releases; Implats and ARM reports; Competition Tribunal; Parliamentary Monitoring Group (Transnet briefings 2006, 2009, 2015); SAnews; Werksmans report via BusinessTech; Mining Weekly, Engineering News, Freight News, Miningmx, Business Day, BusinessTech, Daily Maverick, Mail & Guardian, Mining Indaba, The Outlier; SMM; Project Blue; USGS.