RE: Interesting article from Glencore about ChromeToday 12:50
@Happydays
Dorfan would probably have a better answer, but having been a shareholder in Merafe, the Rustenburg smelters are the ones which Merafe built, prior to the JV with Glencore.
Glencore's original sites were located in the Steelpoort, Burgerfort region and were newer and less costly to run. The Lion II project was built even later in the Steelpoort, Burgerfort region and use significantly less energy than the Rustenburg area. It would makes sense for the JV to keep the Rustenburg smelters mothballed and utiise all the smelters in the Steelpoort region to produce the ferrochrome they market and keep the price at a level where they can make money.
Historically the cost of labour is higher too on the Rustenburg side as that is home to the majority of Platinum players in the market, who command (demand) higher salaries too,
Hope this makes sense and help a bit.
GLA & DYOR