31st Oct 2018 12:15
LONDON (Alliance News) - Sylvania Platinum Ltd said Wednesday its revenue in the first quarter dropped alongside the amount of platinum produced.
For the three months ended September, Sylvania Platinum's revenue decreased 12% to USD14.2 million from USD16.2 million in the immediately previous quarter.
The miner's net profit in the quarter decreased slightly to USD3.8 million from USD3.9 million in the fourth quarter of financial 2018.
The South Africa-focused platinum miner produced 19,137 ounces of platinum metals group - which includes platinum, palladium and rhodium. That was down 5.6% from 20,278 ounce in the three months to the end of June, a record quarter for production.
"The Sylvania dump operations teams have once again performed consistently by producing 19,137 ounces this quarter, the second highest quarterly production in the history of the company," said Chief Executive Officer Terry McConnachie.
"Preceded by last quarter's production record, this period was impacted by some operational instability and 'teething' issues at Doornbosch and Mooinooi, which have since been resolved and management continues to focus on optimisation initiatives on operations."
More positively, Sylvania Platinum's operating costs decreased in the quarter to USD9.7 million from USD11.1 million in the previous quarter.
All-in sustaining costs in the first quarter decreased to USD540 per ounce from USD550 per ounce achieved in the previous quarter.
McConnachie added: "As promised, we have endeavoured to keep costs controlled and our cash reserves remain at a level which will enable the company to continue to fund capital projects and project Echo moving forward."
Sylvania Platinum said its Project Echo milling and flotation technology at Mooinooi is on track to be commissioned in the second half of 2019.
Shares in Sylvania Platinum were down 2.5% Wednesday at 16.94 pence each.
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