South African mining giant paying shareholders R3.7 billion – despite making a loss

Sibanye Stillwater will pay its first dividend since 2023, after prices of the precious metals it produces rallied last year.

The Johannesburg-listed miner announced a payout to shareholders of R3.7 billion. The company’s annual net loss narrowed in 2025 to $288 million from $398 million, as higher prices eased the impact of asset writedowns, it said in a statement on Friday.

Sibanye’s gold and platinum-group metals mines in South Africa “delivered substantial earnings uplift,” while palladium operations in the US returned to profitability following a restructuring initiated in 2024, the company said.

Gold soared 65% last year, while PGMs recovered after a prolonged period of weak prices. Platinum doubled during 2025 and palladium climbed almost 80%. The precious-metal rally continued into this year, before pulling back since late January.

The firm’s headline earnings — which strip out some one-time items such as impairments — almost quadrupled to $387 million.

Sibanye began life in 2013 as the owner of three aging gold mines in its home country. It’s since expanded into platinum, palladium and battery metals.

A 7.8 billion-rand impairment at the company’s Keliber lithium mine in Finland – which will enter production soon – accounted for about half of the writedowns last year.

“Operational financial performance reflected a significant and pleasing turnaround,” despite the impairments and a $215 million settlement with Appian Capital Advisory, Sibanye said.