JOHANNESBURG, April 10 (Reuters) - Sibanye Stillwater said it may look to raise about $500 million through metals streaming and prepayment arrangements to bolster its cash position, even as the company sees an improvement in metal prices and the market outlook.

Metals streaming involves selling future metals production in return for an upfront cash payment.

"We are testing the market, we're not hell bent on raising it ... but if we do it, it needs to be around $500 million," CEO Neal Froneman told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a platinum mining conference in Johannesburg.

While Sibanye is not facing any risk of running out of money as metal prices continue to improve, it is "prudent" for the company to build sufficient liquidity buffers, he said. He ruled out issuing equity to raise the money.

The Johannesburg-based precious metals producer saw profits tumble $2 billion last year due to lower metal prices and after the producer reported $2.6 billion of impairments at its U.S. palladium mines, a nickel operation in France and a gold mine in South Africa.

The company, which has grown from a South African gold and platinum miner to a diversified producer with operations in Australia, Europe and the United States, is starting to see the benefits of restructuring at its South African platinum and gold mines where it has cut some jobs, Froneman said.

"The environment has improved dramatically from when we presented our results," Froneman said. "Our focus will remain on the balance sheet. We just need to be careful and prudent."

South African platinum-group metals producers have resorted to cutting jobs and restructuring operations to cope with lower prices of the metals used in vehicle autocatalysts to help curb toxic emissions. (Reporting by Felix Njini; editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter)