LONDON (Alliance News) - Aquarius Platinum Ltd Wednesday reported a significantly wider pretax loss in the last financial year after an increase in production was offset by lower platinum prices and it booked a large amount of impairments and foreign exchange losses.
The miner reported a wider pretax loss in the year ended June 30 of USD90.4 million, compared to the USD12.6 million loss booked a year earlier, as revenue dropped to USD212.9 million from USD233.1 million after an increase in production was offset by lower platinum prices.
Alongside lower prices, Aquarius reported USD29.4 million in impairments mainly related to its investment in the PlatMile mine, rising from only USD3.1 million a year earlier and a foreign currency loss totalling USD13.3 million from nil. It also booked a USD48.3 million loss from its joint venture entities compared to a USD5.1 million profit a year earlier.
Those were partially offset by finance costs almost halving to USD15.4 million from USD28.1 million as a result of the buy back of USD173 million of the convertible bond in May.
Production in the year rose to 349,426 ounces of platinum group metals, a 5% rise from the 331,643 ounces produced in the last financial year, however average US platinum group metal prices fell 7% to USD1,097 per ounce, but the Rand price rose 3% due to a weaker Rand in the period.
"For the 2015 financial year both mining operations, Kroondal and Mimosa, delivered record production performances whilst maintaining unit cost increases well below inflation and at the same time improving safety performances materially," said Chief Executive Jean Nel.
The Kroondal mine is the company's own project in South Africa whilst Mimosa is a joint venture in Zimbabwe.
"The macro environment however remains very challenging given dollar metal prices at decadal lows. Against this back-drop Aquarius will not only continue its focus on consistent cost and capital discipline, but will also assess further initiatives to reduce absolute costs and increase efficiencies and will perform an assessment of the sustainability of each shaft at each operation," he added.
The company's balance sheet was boosted by USD60.0 million in the year from the sale of its "non-core" Kruidfontein and Everest mines.
Aquarius had a cash balance of USD196.0 million at the end of the financial year, and would have been broadly flat without the sale of its non-core assets.
Aquarius shares were trading flat on Wednesday morning at 6.50 pence per share.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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