JUBILEE METALS: South African PGM and chrome operations update
Jubilee Metals Group PLC, a leader in diversified metals processing, with operations in Africa announces its six-month operations update for the period ending 31 December 2022 (H1
FY2023).
The Company has delivered operational performance broadly in-line with management’s expected earnings and revenue targets for H1 FY2023, mainly supported by the performance of its PGM operations which largely buffered the impact of the power and water infrastructural challenges faced in Zambia which have since been addressed.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
The Company’s newly expanded Inyoni Facility continued to perform, delivering 18 208 PGM ounces for the six-months to December 2022 (100% from own operations) despite increased power outages experienced at the Company’s South African operations.
Chrome production benefited from the increased capacity delivering 634 111 tonnes of chrome concentrate, with chrome production on track to exceed full-year guidance of 1.2 million tonnes of chrome concentrate.
Jubilee’s enlarged chrome processing capacity was utilised to accelerate the production of PGM feed material to increase PGM feed stock by a further 5 016 PGM ounces to better buffer the Inyoni PGM facility against increased power outages.
In November 2022, Jubilee implemented back-up power units at its Windsor 8 chrome operations. The expansion of the power facility is currently under review to further protect the chrome operations that supply the feed to the Inyoni Facility. Since commissioning, the back-up power units have delivered in excess of 650 hours of back-up power.
Operational cost net of chrome credits remained tightly under control at US$ 516 per PGM ounce, which is well below target despite a much lower credit from chrome production due to a softer chrome metal price.
PGM and chrome metal prices were softer over the period with chrome recovering sharply post the reporting period.
The South African operations experienced additional operational downtime relating to a safety incident at an engineering service provider that sadly resulted in a fatality. Following the incident, Jubilee has implemented measures to assume a more direct safety management role of its service providers.
The combined South African operations have achieved 52 days without a lost time injury (LTI) with a lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) of 1.0.
Leon Coetzer, CEO, commented: “Our South African operations delivered a very solid result in the period under review, despite the aforementioned challenges. We moved quickly with our chrome and PGM feed material suppliers to better manage stock levels and synchronise operational activities, while prioritising the implementation of back-up power supply units at the hardest hit operational areas.
“This has allowed our South African operations to temper the impact of the ongoing load-shedding, a term used to describe the reduction of power availability in designated areas by the national power utility of South Africa. With the measures taken and systems implemented I fully expect the operations to closely match targeted up-time resulting in improved processing efficiencies.”
