Announcements 2002

Northam Platinum Limited announces that Ian Watson will be retiring as Managing Director with effect from 31 December 2002.

Ian will be succeeded by Glyn Lewis, who will report to the Board as General Manager.

Mvelaphanda Resources will assume responsibility for Northam's Corporate Office in Johannesburg.

Ian has served as managing director since 1998 during which time the company experienced a dramatic turnaround from a marginal producer to a solid and reliable producer of PGMs.

Ian was the manager of Northam during its development phase, and pioneered the use of hydropower. Shortly after his appointment as managing director in 1998, he steered the company during the vicissitudes of the demise of Gold Fields South Africa, and was instrumental in the successful commissioning of the UG2 plant, which increased the company's production capacity. Over the past four years Northam has produced shareholder returns equivalent to 71% compound per annum.

Glyn Lewis has over 20 years experience in deep level mining. Prior to joining Northam, Glyn was responsible for the Tarkwa Gold project in Ghana. This included the rehabilitation of a derelict underground mine, the delineation of a 13 million ounce opencast resource and the design, construction and commissioning on schedule of a 7.2 million ton per annum opencast heap-leach project at a capital cost of US$160 million.

Dear Shareholder,

As was stated in the directors' report contained in the 2002 Annual Report, subsequent to the declaration and payment of dividend number 8 during August/September 2002, the board obtained legal opinion which confirmed that its interpretation of the company's articles of association, read in conjunction with Section 90 of the Companies Act, was not correct in that the amount distributed of 175 cents per share included a capital payment, being share premium, of 75 cents per share. In terms of Article 3 of the articles of association, capital reductions require the approval of shareholders.

At the annual general meeting that was held on 7 November 2002, the shareholders present approved a resolution ratifying the reduction of share premium of 75 cents per share.

South African shareholders should take note of the following:

• Corporate shareholders who are subject to Secondary Tax on Companies ("STC") are advised that for purposes of calculating their STC position, 100 cents of the 175 cents per share distribution represents a dividend.
• For purposes of calculating Capital Gains Tax, the amount of 75 cents per share constitutes a capital repayment, and consequently the base cost must be reduced by this amount. For information, the published base cost at 30 September 2001 was R11.94.

Shareholders in other tax jurisdictions are advised to consult their financial advisors.

Should you have any queries, please contact our Corporate Finance Manager on +27 11 440 8811 (e-mail: dwolstenholme@corp.norplats.co.za).

Yours faithfully,

I C Watson
Managing Director

Johannesburg
Friday, 29 November 2002

Northam Platinum Limited today reported solid results for its financial year ended June 2002 with production at 8 458 kg of metals in concentrate (3PGE+Au), and earnings of R398 million. This result was achieved despite a significant drop in metal prices over the year.

The company declared a final dividend of 175 cps. Added to the interim dividend posted at the half-year stage, the total return to shareholders amounts to 245 cps, an increase of 4.2% over the total dividend of F2001 (235 cps).

MD Ian Watson said, "A huge operational effort contributed to this creditable performance. As a result tons milled continued to exceed the 1.9Mt mark, and square metres mined were only marginally down from 382 024m2 to 381 394m2. Particularly notable was the fact that the effects of the strike early in the financial year were contained in terms of both operational and safety performance. Shortly after production resumed in September last year, the mine achieved a million fatality-free shifts later the same month. And this was repeated in April this year when it received this award for the second time in the same financial year."

Watson acknowledged the strike's effect on production, which was marginally lower at 8458 kg, representing a 3% decline from 8725 kg in the previous year. "There's no doubt that we were affected by the strike which reduced potential output by about 1200 kg. Nevertheless, despite the loss of 32 production days, metal sales were higher by 7.7% at 287 546 ounces and progress on the establishment of Merensky ore reserves continued apace, up 50% and increasing ore reserve availability from 11 to 17 months. At the same time production from the UG2 reef horizon met the planned production targets.

In US dollar terms metal prices over the reporting period were substantially lower, but were partially offset by the weaker rand. The basket price for metals was 7.2% lower at R160 367/kg (F2001: R172 733/kg). Nevertheless, revenues were maintained at R1.6 billion, largely owing to the sale of metals from inventory. Unit cash costs were affected by lost production and the overheads associated with the strike, resulting in an increase of 13%.

Looking forward, Watson said that the accelerated development on the Merensky Reef is targeted at establishing 24 months of available ore reserves, which should be reached by November 2003. The UG2 ore reserve currently amounts to 36 months. The continually improving ore reserve position will add significantly to mining flexibility. In turn this should certainly result in higher metal production in the new financial year, while costs will continue to be more rigorously controlled.

Earnings for the first half of F2003 are likely to improve provided that US dollar metal prices remain at their current levels, and also taking into account the current exchange rate of the Rand against the US dollar.