Last checked at 
(Alliance News) - Sylvania Platinum Ltd on Monday reported a double-digit increase in profit and revenue for the first half of its financial year, driven by a sharp rise in average basket prices in spite of a minor decline in output.
For the six months ended December 31, the South Africa-focused platinum miner posted a pretax profit of USD57.4 million, up 70% from USD33.7 million the same period the year before. This was on revenue that grew 44% year-on-year to USD85.2 million from USD59.0 million.
Operationally, total 4E platinum group metals production dropped 9% to 36,335 ounces from 40,003 ounces the prior year, due to lower volumes of fresh arisings and PGM feed grades, associated with the scale down at some of Sylvania's hose mine operations.
However, the average gross basket price rose by 74% to USD3,184 per ounce from USD1,830 the year before, and the all-in sustaining cost rose 32% to USD751 per ounce from USD569.
Due to the sharp rise in palladium and rhodium prices having a positive influence on the company's cash flow, Sylvania has declared a one-off windfall dividend of 3.75 pence per share, which will be paid on April 9.
Looking ahead, Sylvania Platinum remains confident that it will achieve its production target of 70,000 ounces for its current financial year, reflecting a 1.4% rise from 69,026 ounces the year before.
"The production teams are to be commended for their resilience as they successfully navigated through the second wave of Covid-19 in South Africa. Whilst production wasn't directly affected, there was a greater impact on employees as well as challenges relating to lower-grade feed sources being processed," said Chief Executive Officer Jaco Prinsloo.
"The implementation of our process optimisation initiatives, such as the Project Echo modules and improved fines classification technology, have contributed to these solid results and the company is confident in achieving its target of 70,000 PGM ounces for the financial year," Prinsloo added.
Shares in Sylvania Platinum were down 1.7% at 116.00 pence on Monday in London.
By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com
Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
