Platinum stocks got clubbed, Amplats sank nearly six percent as the company saw huge pushback from labour unions and government alike, threatening revoking of mining licences, calling the company irresponsible and suggesting that there was a lack of communication from the companies side. It is a highly emotive issue, losing jobs, but there are also economic realities that should have been conveyed a whole lot better. Europe is not buying new cars, those sales are at a 20 year low. December did not look much better in seeing that trend shift soon, there was a mid teen percentage fall off in new motor vehicle registrations across many of the key European territories. The major platinum usage is in controlling emissions from motor vehicles. Lower sales equals lower demand. Amplats does not set the price of the metals that they produce. Equally, they do not set the electricity price, they do not have flexibility over labour. But, they do have a bloated management structure that needed changing. And jobs across the board are at stake here, including 250 high paying jobs at head office. What was fairly encouraging (from my point of view) is that Amplats workers called off their short term strike in order to return to work, because the general consensus was that job security was a problem. I guess everyone is concerned in light of recent announcements.