25th Oct 2006 07:01
Lonmin PLC25 October 2006 Full Year Production Report25 October 2006 Lonmin today announces its production report for the twelve months to 30September 2006 (unaudited). Brad Mills, Chief Executive Officer said: "Our mining operations had a record year producing 1,017,137 Platinum ounces inconcentrate ahead of our 1 million ounce target. Marikana continued to ramp upunderground production with underground tonnes mined up 8.1% on last year. Asplanned we continued to scale back our opencast operations with Marikana'sopencast tonnes mined down 23.4%. Limpopo delivered 50,404 Platinum ounces inconcentrate for the year in line with our forecasts. In the last quarter of theyear we achieved stable Smelter operations and the Process Division recoveredquickly from September's fire in the Precious Metal Refinery. We recorded totalsales for the year of 952,682 ounces of Platinum and 1,817,624 ounces of totalPlatinum Group Metals up 4.4% and 7.4% respectively on last year. During theyear we sold approximately 20% of our full year's PGM sales as concentrate dueto our Smelter rebuild programme and other processing outage issues. These salescarry a lower margin than refined metal sales. Cost pressures increased in thesecond half and we now believe that full year Marikana C1 costs of ownproduction net of by-product credits will be around R2,400 to R2,450 per PGMounce sold." Mining 12 months to 12 months to 30 September 30 September 2006 2005+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+|Tonnes mined Marikana Underground 000 11,942 11,047 || Opencast 000 2,032 2,653 | | Total 000 13,974 13,700 || -----------------------------------------------------------|| Limpopo Underground 000 858 212 || Opencast 000 14 0 || Total 000 872 212 || -----------------------------------------------------------|| Lonmin Underground 000 12,800 11,259 || Platinum Opencast 000 2,046 2,653 || Total 000 14,846 13,912 |+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+|Tonnes milled* Marikana Underground 000 11,959 11,102 || Opencast 000 2,308 2,444 || Total 000 14,267 13,546 || -----------------------------------------------------------|| Limpopo Underground 000 887 214 || Opencast 000 14 0 || Total 000 901 214 ||----------------------------------------------------------------------------|| Lonmin Underground 000 12,846 11,316 || Platinum Opencast 000 2,322 2,444 || Total 000 15,168 13,760 |+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+*Excluding slag 12 months to 12 months to 30 September 30 September 2006 2005+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+|Metals in Marikana Platinum oz 966,733 930,373 ||concentrate Palladium oz 433,699 402,748 || Rhodium oz 137,220 129,872 || Total PGMs oz 1,861,179 1,766,908 || --------------------------------------------------------------|| Limpopo Platinum oz 50,404 11,567 || Palladium oz 38,170 9,217 || Rhodium oz 7,845 1,305 || Total PGMs oz 113,364 25,672 || --------------------------------------------------------------|| Lonmin Platinum Platinum oz 1,017,137 941,940 || Palladium oz 471,869 411,965 || Rhodium oz 145,065 131,177 || Total PGMs oz 1,974,543 1,792,580 |+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+Metals in concentrate are contained ounces in concentrate produced during theperiod by the mining operations. Metallurgy 12 months to 12 months to 30 September 30 September 2006 2005+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+|Production Marikana Platinum oz 739,277 830,911 || refined Palladium oz 323,275 360,753 || Rhodium oz 87,674 93,445 || Total PGMs oz 1,352,037 1,510,553 || ------------------------------------------------------------|| Marikana Platinum oz 158,114 73,985 || concentrate Palladium oz 77,630 38,346 || and other Rhodium oz 37,855 24,491 || Total PGMs oz 341,643 167,956 || ------------------------------------------------------------|| Limpopo Platinum oz 50,404 11,524 || concentrate Palladium oz 38,170 9,043 || Rhodium oz 7,845 1,320 || Total PGMs oz 113,364 25,741 || || ------------------------------------------------------------| | Lonmin Platinum Platinum oz 947,795 916,420 || Palladium oz 439,075 408,142 || Rhodium oz 133,374 119,256 || Total PGMs oz 1,807,044 1,704,250 |+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Lonmin Group Metal Sales 12 months to 12 months to 30 September 30 September 2006 2005+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Sales Lonmin Platinum oz 952,682 912,844 || Platinum Palladium oz 442,630 402,425 || Rhodium oz 135,449 117,944 || Total PGMs oz 1,817,624 1,692,517 |+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ 12 months 12 months to to 30 30 September September 2006 2005+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+|Prices Average Platinum R/oz 7,283 5,366 || $/oz 1,084 856 || Palladium R/oz 1,999 1,184 || $/oz 299 189 || Rhodium R/oz 26,106 10,494 || $/oz 3,897 1,661 || ------------------------------------------------------------|| || Basket price of PGMs & base $/kg 30,916 19,979 || metals |+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+|Exchange Average rate for period $/£ 1.81 1.85 ||Rates R/$ 6.63 6.28 || ------------------------------------------------------------|| Closing rate $/£ 1.87 1.75 || R/$ 7.77 6.36 |+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Lonmin's Final Results will be announced on 15 November 2006 and first quarterproduction report on 25 January 2007. Enquiries:Alex Shorland-Ball +44 (0) 20 7201 6060Vice President, Investor Relations & Communications This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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