Striking mineworkers have made the platinum business a challenging one for Anglo American, prompting a Reuters report that quotes Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani as saying that disposal of the strike-hit Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) could be an option if it failed to perform as well as the company’s other divisions, which include iron-ore, coal and diamonds. The report did the rounds when Amplats itself was saying that more of its shafts might close as a result of the strike, which, at the time of going to press, was in its eleventh week. That Amplats still has platinum to supply its customers and is not having to pay its force majeured contactors and workers may mean that the company will surprise on the upside. Some of the Amplats mines outside Rustenburg make far more profit than the stricken Rustenburg operations, which are borderline cases at best when it comes to margins.