Stillwater Mining has staked a claim to one of the few significant sources of platinum and palladium outside South Africa and Russia. The company extracts, processes, and refines platinum group metals (PGMs) -- platinum, palladium, and associated minerals -- at mines and a smelter in Montana. PGMs are used in catalytic converters for automobiles, as well as in jewelry and other applications. Stillwater Mining also owns exploratory properties of PGM and copper in Canada and copper and gold in Argentina. It produces about 404,000 ounces of palladium and 120,000 ounces of platinum annually. By-products include copper, gold, nickel, and silver. In 2016 Sibanye Gold bid $2.2 billion to buy the company.