Anglo American Platinum says said its Zimbabwean subsidiary remains key to the group’s performance in the medium-to-long term.
“Unki mine in Zimbabwe remains a strategic asset,” said CEO executive Chris Griffith.
This comes as the Zvishavane based mine posted a record performance for the year to December 31, 2018.
Pordiction at Unki Platinum hit 192 000 ounces of platinum group metals (PGM), which was 16 percent above prior year.
The group attributed Unki’s performance to an increase in tonnes milled.
Unki’s strong performance together with other units – Mogalakwena and Kroondal – helped push the global mining giant’s overall figures for the year under review.
“Operationally and financially, we had a very strong year. Record production performances from Mogalakwena, Unki and Kroondal saw total platinum group metal production increasing by 4 percent.
“We increased our free cash flow by 60 percent and reduced net debt by R4,7 billion turning to a net cash position of R2,9bn at the end of 2018. Given this performance and the improving market outlook for PGMs, Anglo American Platinum was the best-performing share on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s All Share Index in 2018 delivering a total shareholder return of 55 percent,” added Griffith.
During the period under review, tonnes milled at Unki rose 10 percent on the back of an improved underground productivity while the 4E built-up head grade increased to 3,51 g/t (2017: 3,47g/t) due to improved mining reef cut and reducing waste tonnes mined.
Unki delivered R0,5 billion of economic free cash flow and an EBITDA margin of 29 percent “If adjusted for the sale of treasury bills and real time gross settlement (RTGS) forex loss, the EBITDA margin would be 27 percent and ROCE would be 8 percent AISC (excluding the receipts of treasury bills) per platinum ounce sold was $616 per ounce, marginally up from $612, due to the benefit from increased by-product revenue offset by the RTGS forex loss,’” noted AngloPlat.
Total PGM production increased 4 percent to 5 186 500 ounces. Excluding Bokoni, which was placed on care and maintenance in 2017, total PGM production was up 6 percent on a like-for-like basis.
Production at Mogalakwena reached a record 1 170 000 PGM ounces, which was 7 percent above prior year at Amandelbult production increased by 1 percent to 868 800 ounces, due to increased underground production delivered to the concentrator, primarily from Dishaba.
Mototolo increased production by 56 percent to 287 700 PGM ounces, which include some production overflow from 2017 toll concentrated at Bokoni.
Anglo’s total production from joint venture mines, on a like for like basis, increased 5 percent to 477 000 PGM ounces while purchase of concentrate ounces were up 13 percent to 2 291 900 PGM ounces.
However, sales volumes were however 3 percent below to 5 224 900 ounces due to lower refined production, which was partially offset by a draw down in refined inventory.
Refined production was lower than mined production due to the temporary build-up of work-in-progress inventory at Unki, Mortimer and Polokwane.
“The planned rebuilds of Mortimer smelter in Q2, and Polokwane smelter in Q3, the commissioning of the Unki smelter in Q3 and other maintenance on processing assets resulted in the inventory build, which the company expects will be fully processed in 2019,” said AngloPlat.
While Anglo anticipates to maintain the operational efficiencies production guidance for 2019 is lower than that of 2018.
Total PGM production for 2019 is expected to reach between 4,2 million ounces and 4,5 million ounces.
And platinum is guided to reach between 2 million and 2,1 million ounces while guidance for palladium of between 1,3 million and 1,4 million ounces is given.