Impala Platinum Holdings Limited (Implats) operates seven mining operations across Southern Africa's Bushveld Complex and Great Dyke, plus sites in Canada, producing platinum group metals that end up in fuel cells, autocatalysts, medical devices, and electronics. Founded in 1966 and headquartered in Johannesburg, the company runs a fully integrated model spanning extraction, refining, and processing. Over 66,000 people work across these operations.
The threat surface is broad and unforgiving. Mining and refining infrastructure relies on industrial control systems managing high-risk extraction and chemical processing workflows - environments where a compromised SCADA layer or disrupted OT network doesn't just mean downtime, it means physical danger. Corporate IT spans a massive workforce across multiple countries and jurisdictions, with supply chain, logistics, and financial systems linking to commodity markets that attract their own threat actors. The cybersecurity challenge here isn't theoretical; it's protecting operational technology in hazardous environments alongside a sprawling enterprise footprint.
Implats produces PGMs that serve decarbonisation technologies - platinum for hydrogen fuel cells, palladium and rhodium for catalytic converters - placing the company at the intersection of critical mineral supply chains and geopolitical interest. The security posture required for a resource extraction company of this scale involves defending both the digital and physical layers: network segmentation between IT and OT, threat monitoring across geographically distributed sites, and managing access for tens of thousands of employees across South Africa and Canada. Core values emphasize respect, care, and delivery; the technical reality is keeping seven mines and their processing chains secure and operational.
