Northam Platinum refined PGM metals production grew by 34.1%
The group’s equivalent refined metal from own operations grew by 34.1% to 690 867 oz 4E (F2020: 515 370 oz 4E). This was despite the ongoing phased restart of operations, particularly impacting the conventional Zondereinde mine, where all mining crews had only fully returned to work by the end of March 2021.
Group chrome concentrate production also increased, breaching one million tonnes for the first time. This comes off the back of higher concentrator throughput and improved yields at the Booysendal and Zondereinde mines.
Group unit cash costs per equivalent refined platinum ounce improved by 2.1% to R28 662/Pt oz (F2020: R29 281/Pt oz). Zondereinde mine’s unit cash costs improved by 5.7% to R30 350/Pt oz, with a corresponding improvement of 2.9% at Booysendal mine to R20 780/Pt oz, whilst unit cash costs at Eland mine increased by 46.0% to R42 928/Pt oz.
Eland mine’s PGM production is currently derived from surface sources, and purchased at prevailing market prices, which led to this increase in unit cash costs.
Capital expenditure increased to R3.3 billion (F2020: R2.4 billion). This is the combined result of the restart of capital projects that had been curtailed following the onset of COVID-19, together with capital projects having either been completed, or nearing completion at Booysendal mine. R1.8 billion (F2020: R2.0 billion) was spent on expansionary capital expenditure and R1.5 billion (F2020: R382.2 million) on sustaining capital expenditure.
KEY FINANCIAL FEATURES:
- Revenue of R32.6 billion.
- Operating profit of R16.1 billion.
- EBITDA of R16.7 billion.
- Normalised headline earnings of R10.9 billion equating to R21.32 per share, up by 215.2%.
- Profit after tax of R9.4 billion.
- Earnings per share of R26.82 and headline earnings per share of R26.88.
- Reduction of 28.9% in the total issued share capital compared to prior to implementation of the transaction, which will positively impact future earnings calculations.
- Net debt of R3.7 billion.
