Sibanye's platinum dream iced

Sibanye Gold doubts it will make its first platinum-asset buy this year as sellers such as Anglo American are slowing the process.

"What's clear is that Anglo is going to move at a much slower pace than what we were anticipating," Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman said yesterday.

"I'm becoming very doubtful something will happen this year."

Froneman plans to buy platinum assets to sustain Sibanye's dividend as its gold mines reach the end of their life spans.

Though he wa s seeking operations valued by their owners at between R5-billion and R10-billion, he did no t plan to pay that much, Froneman said last month.

Anglo American Platinum aims to sell as many as four mines and two joint ventures by the end of 2015, according to Mark Cutifani, CEO of parent company Anglo American.

Sibanye's stock has more than doubled this year, making it the best performer in the Bloomberg senior g old i ndex, as it cut costs and increased production at its three mature mines in South Africa.

Froneman said platinum could make up 50% of the company's revenue in the "medium term".

Sibanye increased the quantity of metal produced by 8.5% to 711900 ounces in the first half, from a year earlier, and cut all-in costs by 16%.

The share rallied as much as 5% in early-morning trading on the JSE, but later flattened to trade about 1% higher by late afternoon.

Production is forecast to increase to about 1.61million ounces this year.