While there is a bit of palladium relief here and rhodium and chrome price relief there, South Africans need to face up to the harsh reality that its important platinum-mining industry is in crisis, because that is what happens when the price of your main product is below economic levels. An exceptional opencast platinum mine here and an exceptional underground platinum mine there are merely the exceptions that prove the rule. Heads need to be put together to decide how best South Africa can ride out this period of temporary foreboding and how steps can then be taken on the marketing front to ensure that the price cycle never cuts this deep into the industry again.