Sibanye buys 3 platinum mines for US$330m

Johannesburg

CRIPPLING labour strikes, geriatric mines and precious metals prices scraping along at their lowest levels in half a decade don't faze Neal Froneman, head of the world's best-performing gold producer over the past two years.

Mr Froneman, known in the industry as "Mr Fixit", defied investors' scepticism to build up Sibanye Gold Ltd from a spin-off of three old, strike-prone South African mines owned by Gold Fields Ltd.