Anglo American said Thursday it has postponed capital investment decisions for platinum until 2017 following the sale of its Rustenburg mine.
The move comes after Anglo American said in its third-quarter production report that platinum production had risen 14% year on year, having been hit by a series of strikes in 2014.
"Platinum production increased to 614,300 tr oz due to Rustenburg, Amandelbult and Union mines ramping up to normal production levels during the comparable period in 2014 following the strike," Anglo American said in its report.
Anglo American noted that full-year refined production expectations remained steady at 2.3 million to 2.4 million tr oz.
Last month, the company announced the sale of its Rustenburg operations to Sibanye Gold Limited at an approximate value of South African Rand 4.5 billion ($332.39 million).
However, the company said in a statement September 9 that it would remain involved in purchasing material from the Rustenburg mine.
"Sibanye will sell all concentrate produced by the Rustenburg operations to Anglo American Platinum until December 31, 2018, based on pre-agreed commercial terms," Anglo American said in the statement.
The mine disposal comes after a weak year for platinum. Prices have fallen 16% year to date and moved to a 6-1/2 year low of $903/mt October 1.
Since then, spot prices have rebounded to around $1,000/tr oz and were last bid at $999.70/tr oz at 1324 GMT Thursday.
Platinum and other PGM prices have fallen heavily since the beginning of 2015 on a variety of factors, including increased mining output from key supplier South Africa, slower car sales in emerging economies, and the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal in September.
Platinum is a key component of auto catalyst technology used in the production of diesel-fueled engines.
"We have reduced our 2016 [price] forecast by 4% to reflect skepticism that meaningful production volumes will be cut, but we acknowledge that there is great uncertainty about the impact from the Volkswagen scandal," Macquarie said in a note.
"The very weak [South African] rand has also maintained miners' income at a survivable level, once again postponing any supply adjustment," the bank added.
The South African rand has continued to depreciate throughout 2015, falling 13.98% year to date against the dollar.
