LONDON (Alliance News) - Aquarius Platinum Ltd on Tuesday reported a material rise in production during the first quarter of its financial year but suffered from the continuing fall in platinum prices that caused the company to swing to a substantial pretax loss.
The platinum miner reported a USD14.3 million pretax loss in the first quarter ended September 30, swinging from a USD6.3 million profit a year ago, as revenue dropped to USD40.3 million from USD61.7 million due to lower platinum prices.
During the quarter, the miner's operations were unprofitable as they yielded a USD7.7 million gross loss, compared to a USD5.3 million gross profit a year ago.
Aquarius tried to battle declining platinum prices by increasing production to 95,513 ounces of platinum group metals in the quarter, up 8% from 86,855 ounces a year earlier and up 5% from the 88,803 ounces produced in the previous quarter.
Its two mines and processing plant in Zimbabwe reported rises in production year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter, with its PlatMile plant contributing much of the growth with quarterly production rising 40% from the previous quarter and more than doubling from a year ago.
However, that was not enough to offset falling platinum prices. In the quarter ended September, platinum prices averaged USD865 per platinum group metal ounce, down 14% from USD1,006 per ounce in the quarter ended July and down 29% from USD1,225 in year-earlier quarter.
Aquarius said it was "the weakest quarterly performance for platinum since 2008".
Alongside the ramp up in production, Aquarius managed to lower costs slightly to weather the downturn. Cash costs at its Kroondal mine fell 1% quarter-on-quarter but remained flat at Mimosa.
At the end of September, Aquarius reported a cash balance of USD175.0 million, compared to USD196.0 million at the end of June.
Aquarius shares were trading flat at 11.50 pence per share on Tuesday morning.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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