Aquarius battens down hatches

There's an old joke about an Irishman being asked for directions, and he replies: 'Well, I wouldn't start from here.' You get the impression from Aquarius Platinum that, given its time over again, it would not choose to conduct its business in South Africa.

There's an old joke about an Irishman being asked for directions, and he replies: 'Well, I wouldn't start from here.' You get the impression from Aquarius Platinum that, given its time over again, it would not choose to conduct its business in South Africa.

In the last year the group has had to mothball two of its currently uneconomic mines, got the hump with its mining contractors, had an armed attack on one of its shafts by disgruntled former employees of a mining contractor, had a sharp rise in so-called "section 54" safety stoppages, put up with poor industrial relations as a result of inter-union rivalry, seen US dollar platinum group metals (PGM) prices slump while production costs have risen.

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