Anglo American Platinum: Refined PGMs production up by 89% for 2021
Anglo American Platinum released a PGM production report for the fourth quarter ending 31 December 2021. Refined PGMs production (from owned production, excluding tolling) increased by 107% to 1,391,300 ounces for Q4.
Refined platinum production increased by 120% to 653,500 ounces and refined palladium production rose by 105% to 423,200 ounces.
The strong performance reflected the operational stability in the ACP, following the completion of the Phase A rebuild in November 2020, and strong performance across all processing assets. The build-up in work-in-progress inventory following the temporary closure of the ACP has largely been processed and refined. The ACP Phase B rebuild has been completed in January 2022 and recommissioning will commence in Q1 2022.
Total refined PGMs production (from own production, excluding tolling) for 2021 increased by 89% to a record 5,138,400 PGMs ounces compared to 2020. Toll refined PGMs production increased by 22% to 179,500 PGMs ounces.
PGMs sales volumes (excluding trading) increased by 70% to 1,285,200 ounces in Q4, because of higher refined production, partially offset by the rebuild in refined metal inventory following strong demand and a draw down in the first half of 2021. Platinum sales volumes increased by 103% to 632,900 ounces and palladium sales volumes increased by 53% to 395,100 ounces.
The Q4 2021 average realised basket price of $2,434 per PGMs ounce reflects continued strong prices, despite being down 3% on Q4 2020 and 14% down on Q3 2021 as prices for most PGMs softened over the last quarter.
Production guidance (metal in concentrate) for 2022 is 4.1-4.5 million ounces. Refined production guidance for 2022 is 4.2-4.6 million ounces, subject to the potential impact of Eskom load-shedding. Both are subject to the extent of further Covid-19 related disruption. Unit cost guidance for 2022 is expected to be between R13,800 – R14,500 per PGMs ounce (equivalent to c.$900 per PGMs ounce).
