LONDON (Alliance News) - Pan African Resources PLC Monday said earnings in the first half of its current financial year will be higher than a year ago as the miner increased production by more than 16%.
The company said it expects to report earnings per share of 0.57 pence and headline earnings per share of 0.63 pence in the six months ended December 31, compared to EPS of 0.30p and headline EPS of 0.31p in the corresponding period a year earlier.
In rand, EPS is expected to come in at 11.89 cents whilst headline EPS will be around 13.02 cents, compared to the EPS of 5.42 cents and headline EPS of 5.61 cents last year.
The exchange rate used to calculate the EPS figures in pounds from rand moved to ZAR20.83 rand per GBP1 in the six month period from the previous exchange rate last year of ZAR17.87 rand for every GBP1, and the company stressed that the 16.6% change in the average exchange rate must be taken into account when comparing the year-on-year figures.
In terms of operations, which all lie in South Africa, Pan African said it produced 106,290 ounces of platinum group metals in the six month period compared to 91,386 ounces last year.
That production rise was driven by a 34% lift in production at the Evander mines to 45,350 ounces of gold from 33,733 ounces and a 6.6% lift in production from the Baberton mines to 56,447 ounces from 52,942 ounces. Those rises were partially offset by a 4.6% fall in production from the Phoenix platinum unit to 4,493 ounces of platinum group metals from 4,711 ounces a year ago.
Pan African said it plans to release its interim results for the six month period "on or around" February 23.
Pan African shares were trading up 7.6% to 12.10 pence per share on Monday morning.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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