science

Stillwater Mining Company

Stillwater Mining Company is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Stillwater Mining Company rather than just read about it. In short: Stillwater Mining Company (NYSE: SWC) is a palladium and platinum mining company with headquarters located at Littleton, Colorado, United States. It is the only palladium and platinum producer in the USA.

Key takeaways

Stillwater Mining Company belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Stillwater Mining Company to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Stillwater Mining Company from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Stillwater Mining Company (NYSE: SWC) is a palladium and platinum mining company with headquarters located at Littleton, Colorado, United States. It is the only palladium and platinum producer in the USA. The only other North America based palladium/platinum producer is North American Palladium, located in Canada. In 2017 it was acquired by Sibanye Gold Limited, who then began trading as Sibanye-Stillwater.

Processing Mined Material Stillwater Mining Company is engaged in the development, extraction, processing, refining and marketing of palladium, platinum and associated metals (platinum group metals or PGMs) from a geological formation in the Stillwater igneous complex in south central Montana known as the J-M Reef and from the recycling of spent catalytic converters. The J-M Reef is the only known significant source of platinum group metals inside the United States and one of the significant resources outside South Africa and Russia. Associated by-product metals at the Company’s operations include minor amounts of gold, silver, nickel and copper. The J-M Reef is a narrow but extensive mineralized zone containing PGMs, which has been traced over a strike length of approximately 28 miles (45 km). The company conducts mining operations at the Stillwater Mine near Nye, Montana and at the East Boulder Mine near Big Timber, Montana. Both mines are located on the J-M Reef. The company operates concentrating plants at each mining operation to upgrade mined production to a concentrate form. The company operates a smelter and base metal refinery at Columbus, Montana at which it further purifies the mined production to a PGM-rich filter cake. The filter cake is shipped to third-party custom refiners for final refining before being sold. The company recycles spent catalyst material to recover PGMs at the smelter and refinery. The company has a longterm catalyst sourcing agreement and spot contracts with other suppliers who ship spent catalysts to the company for processing to recover PGMs. The company smelts and refines the spent catalysts by the same process as the mined production is purified.

Business Norilsk Nickel had bought a 51% stake in Stillwater in 2003, but in November 2010 Norilsk Nickel announced plans to sell this stake. The South African mining company Sibanye Gold Limited proposed in December 2016 to acquire Stillwater for $2.2 billion ($18/share, a 61-percent premium over its average share price during the previous 52 weeks). The merger was approved by the Committee on Foreign Investments in April 2017 and was completed in May. The new owners pledged to honor Stillwater's Good Neighbor Agreement, which requires notification of surrounding communities about anything which might affect them. In December 2010, the Company acquired Marathon PGM Corporation. It was renamed Stillwater Canada.

Controversies In 2002, two class action suits were filed against the company, wherein stakeholders claimed that the Stillwater was artificially inflating the price of its securities. On Nov 1, 2004, Stillwater Mining restated its third quarter results, during which payment for debt issuance costs was $3.8 million, not a receipt of $0.8 million as originally reported. In 2006, a group of shareholders won a $2.6 million settlement against the company for "misleading statements about the company's financial performance" and its ore reserves.

References

External links Stillwater Mining Company website

Illustrations

Stillwater Mining Company: The Stillwater mine and mill — The Stillwater mine and mill

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Stillwater Mining Company

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Stillwater Mining Company claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Stillwater Mining Company before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Stillwater Mining Company ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Stillwater Mining Company

In research: Stillwater Mining Company appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Stillwater Mining Company in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Stillwater Mining Company is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Companies based in Montana, Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Non-renewable resource companies established in 1992, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Stillwater Mining Company outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Stillwater Mining Company in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Stillwater Mining Company means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Stillwater Mining Company out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Stillwater Mining Company in simple terms?

Why does Stillwater Mining Company matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Stillwater Mining Company?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Stillwater Mining Company.