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Sylvania Platinum Ltd on Thursday reported a weaker performance for its recently ended financial year, as a result of lower platinum feed grades and a decline in average basket prices.
For the year ended June 30, the South Africa-focused platinum miner said pretax profit dropped 44% to $80.9 million from $143.2 million the year before, on revenue which declined 26% year-on-year to $151.9 million from $206.1 million.
The company's Sylvania Dump Operations achieved target production of 67,053 ounces, down 4% from 70,043 ounces the prior year, as plant feed dropped 11% to 2.39 million tonnes from 2.70 million tonnes.
The lower output was attributed to lower quality feed sources and blends from the host mines at the Western Operations, as well as the Lesedi tailings dam related stoppage during the first half.
In addition, the average 4E PGM basket price declined 23% to $2,890 per ounce from $3,762.
Despite the weaker performance, Sylvania Platinum declared an ordinary dividend of 8.0 pence per share, doubled from 4.0p the year before.
Looking ahead, Sylvania said that feed grades have improved sharply since the fourth quarter, and with the newly commissioned Lesedi million and flotation technology, as well as the roll-out of the Tweefontein MF2, the company expects production for the 2023 financial year to come between 68,000 and 70,000 ounces.
Based on current resources and production scheduling, output in on-track to increase over the 2024 and 2025 financial years.
‘Strong effort was put in by all production teams and the newly commissioned MF2 circuit at Lesedi, as well as the improvement in ROM PGM grade received from the host mine in the last half of the year, assisted the group to deliver ounces in the mid-range of its stated production target. Clearly, commodity pricing has been more volatile than we have seen for some time, with a 23% decrease in the average basket price received, which impacted our overall financial results for the year. However, looking forward I am optimistic about the uptick displayed in the chrome market,’ said Chief Executive Officer Jaco Prinsloo.
Shares in Sylvania Platinum were up 6.2% at 86.00 pence on Thursday in London.
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