From grief to growth - that's the ground Impala Platinum (Implats) has covered over the past decade, transforming itself from a perennial "also-ran" to the FM's top-performing company.
Implats is the second-largest producer of platinum in the world, refining about 1,2m oz of the metal annually.
It has always been overshadowed on output by world number one Anglo American Platinum (Angloplat), which produces about 2,1m oz/year. And until recently, Angloplat also beat Implats in terms of productivity, earnings performance and share price performance.
The difference between the two was bluntly defined by former Implats CEO Steve Kearney in 1999 when, reflecting on how Implats had by then turned the corner, he said: "It was not just that we were second-best, we were actually second-rate."
Implats had fallen so badly behind competitors Angloplat and Lonplats that it was by far the highest-cost producer of the three. In the early Nineties that left Implats seriously exposed to the downturn in prices and demand then hammering the platinum business.
There were many reasons it fell behind, and catching up took years of effort that exacted a heavy toll on those involved - workers and management alike.
More than 17 000 workers lost their jobs in the transformation process. And Kearney, an executive in his early 40s, resigned in 2000 citing ill-health, which many observers put down to the stress of the job.
He is widely credited with resolving the greatest challenge that had faced Implats: ending the feud between the group and the Royal Bafokeng Nation (RBN), which owns the mineral rights to much of Implats' mining area.
That dispute had been running in one form or another since about 1984 over the level of royalty payments due to the RBN from profits made by Implats from mining their ground.
In the mid-Nineties the feud got caught up in the political birth pains of the new SA and took on a strong ideological complexion which worsened an already a vicious legal dispute, threatening the survival of Implats.
The RBN viewed Implats as "the devil" because it had struck a deal with Lucas Mangope, President of the former Bophuthatswana. Mangope and the homeland were anathema to the ANC, which the RBN supported.
Brian Gilbertson, Implats chairman in the late Eighties and early Nineties, held a rock-ribbed belief that Implats had a legally binding contract negotiated in good faith and its legitimacy had been confirmed in the courts by Implats' successes in the legal action that had taken place.
The RBN were viewed as opportunists taking advantage of the political changes in SA to try to force Implats into agreeing to better terms.
None of this was helping already turbulent labour relations on Implats' mines, situated almost entirely inside the Bophuthatswana boundaries.
Implats went through hell on the industrial relations front in the early Nineties. The group's management says the positive outcome of this is that Implats now has far more stable industrial relations than Angloplat.
The breakthrough came late in 1998, when Kearney managed to negotiate the basis for a settlement, which cost the company higher rates of royalty payments and the issue of 1m shares to the RBN as well as granting the RBN a seat on the board.
Those shares were worth about R95m at the time of issue but are now worth around R710m - that's how the share price has performed over the past three years.
The market rerated Implats because of the settlement with the RBN, and then the company reaped the full benefits of higher platinum revenues booming through to the bottom line of its more efficient operations.
But the settlement was really the final step in a resurrection process that started in 1991. Former non-executive chairman Michael McMahon says: "From 1991 to 1996 we carried out what I call a technical revolution at Implats. We changed the mining methods, upgraded the processing facilities and retrenched 17 000 workers."
The results were a traumatised workforce and the horrible realisation that, despite five years of harsh changes under the management of McMahon and Kearney, conditions at Implats had actually got worse.
The platinum price had been weakening faster than Implats management could improve its operations. The ultimate solution involved a sea change in management's approach.
"We were eventually convinced that we had to stop telling people how to do their work," says McMahon, "and instead ask them how we, as management, could help them do their jobs better.
"It was extremely stressful to turn ourselves inside out like that. We had to put behind us a sense of deep grievance for all we had done and all the pain that had been suffered. It took us the best part of six months to accept the need for change and a new strategy," he says.
But it worked - as did the solution management found to another problem inhibiting the group's future: a lack of growth strategy.
Angloplat has vast, untouched mineral rights holdings which it is using as the base for its current expansion programme to reach annual output of 3,5m oz/year of platinum by 2005.
Implats, which wants to double its output to 2m oz/year, does not have such reserves and optimal, sustainable production from its core mines near Rustenburg is only around 1m oz annually.
The solution has been to get involved in a series of joint ventures in SA with junior mining companies, all of which have contracted to have their platinum concentrates refined through Implats' precious metals refinery at Springs in Gauteng.
Implats has also won control over about 80% of the platinum reserves in neighbouring Zimbabwe - the second-largest reserves in the world after SA - through similar joint ventures with junior mining companies Zimplats and Mimosa.
Looking ahead, new CEO Keith Rumble has identified as one of his biggest challenges the need to gain greater international exposure for Implats. Success here could result in a further rerating of the stock, which has flattish growth prospects at the moment because of the levelling-off in the platinum price.
Such a rerating could come from getting a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange, for example, which Implats tried to do in the early Nineties through a proposed merger with Lonplats. That was crushed by the European Commission because of antitrust worries.
Implats still holds a 27% stake in Lonplats and recurrent market speculation is that this deal could be revived in some modified fashion that would be acceptable to the commission.
Implats is controlled by Gencor, which holds 47% of the stock. Gencor has stated its intention to unbundle that holding to its own shareholders in July this year, which could open the door to various possibilities affecting Implats' future.
Among them is the possibility that one of the global resources giants might try for control of Implats. There's also the chance that one of the big gold groups might be interested in diversifying with a move into platinum.
Investors in Implats have had a wild ride over the past four years, with the stock rising from a low of R34,50 in 1998 to levels around R710. It may not be over just yet.