Century Zinc produced 51% more of payable zinc
Sibanye Stillwater’s Century Zinc operation delivered a strong operational performance for Q1 2025, with resilience measures effectively reducing the wet season’s impacts, and production of 25 kt of payable zinc, a 51% increase compared to the 16kt produced in Q1 2024, when production was impacted by severe regional weather.
Sales for the quarter totalled 10 kt of payable zinc metal, which was 15kt lower than production due to the timing of shipments (US$40m concentrate inventory built up at the Karumba port by end of Q1 2025). AISC for Q1 2025 of US$1,738/tZn (R32,127/tZn) was 32% lower than for Q1 2024, due to the substantial increase in payable zinc production year-on-year.
Actions taken during 2024 to minimise future impacts of heavy rains on the operations during the wet season (particularly during the first quarter of the year), included the addition of two satellite slurry winning pontoons (separate mining systems, less affected by rain events), additional dewatering infrastructure, an improved debris removal system, and additional water diversion bunds, which have had a very positive impact.
We expect the strong operational and financial performance for Q1 2025 to continue through 2025.
Strong zinc prices and record low treatment charges (TCs) led to a 28% increase in the average equivalent zinc concentrate price received.
This coupled with solid production resulted in materially lower AISC, and a notable increase of US$24 million (R440 million) in adjusted EBITDA year-on-year to US$10 million (R178 million) for Q1 2025, compared with a loss of US$14 million (R262 million) for Q1 2024.
Supportive zinc prices and low TC’s together with approximately US$40m of zinc concentrate inventory to be monetised over coming quarters, suggest a meaningful financial contribution from the Century operation for 2025 including positive free cash flow.
Options to leverage the existing infrastructure (processing plant, pipeline and port infrastructure) and extend the life of the assets beyond the current zinc retreatment operations are being actively explored.
This includes opportunities to potentially utilise the Century operation infrastructure to access the extensive largely undeveloped phosphate resources in the region, with a feasibility study (AACE Class 2 Estimate) currently underway and forecast to be complete by year end.
