A threatening letter, a derailed train, blocked roads, burned vehicles, workers locked up. That’s what some of the world’s biggest mining companies say they’re battling in South Africa: Extortion. Covid plunged Africa’s most-industrialized country – home to the biggest deposits of metals ranging from platinum to chrome and manganese – into the deepest economic contraction in more than a quarter century, and its aftermath has left it with soaring inflation, one of the world’s highest unemployment rates and a collapse of local government services. Mining firms, riding a boom in the global commodities market, have been a rare bright spot, making companies like Anglo American, Glencore and Sibanye-Stillwater targets for groups they say are demanding as much as 30% of their lucrative procurement contracts, often with little to offer by way of skills and services. Noncompliance brings threats to executives and disruptions in operations.
