Highlights
- The establishment of the Anglo Platinum Kotula Trust to facilitate a broad based employee share participation scheme benefitting some 45,000 employees, holding on behalf of its beneficiaries, 2.5 million Anglo Platinum shares representing 1.0% of the Company’s issued share capital.
- The signature, subject to fulfilment of conditions precedent, of the full suite of legal binding agreements for the implementation of the Mvelaphanda Resources and Anooraq Resources BEE transactions and submission thereof to Department of Minerals and Energy for final review.
- The approval of the R7.1 billion (R5.9 billion real money terms) expansion of the Twickenham mine in South Africa's Limpopo province, which will increase production to 250,000 tonnes per month or 180,000 ounces of platinum a year from 2016.
- Full commissioning of the North concentrator at Mogalakwena (formerly Potgietersrust) which produced its first ounces in March 2008.
- Rhodium contract sales terms successfully renegotiated.
Review of the quarter
Anglo Platinum remains committed to its approach of creating a culture in which safety is paramount, with effective learning from safety incidents to ensure no repeats’. Anglo Platinum’s Enhanced Safety Improvement Plan continues with the objective of achieving zero harm’.
Equivalent refined platinum production (equivalent ounces are mined ounces expressed as refined ounces) from the mines managed by Anglo Platinum and its joint venture partners for the first quarter of 2008 were 517,500 ounces, a decrease of 19% when compared to the first quarter in 2007. The main factors affecting production were:
- The disruption of operations at the Amandelbult mine as a result of underground working areas being inundated by flood water. Dewatering of the mine has proceeded according to plan and Anglo Platinum expects the mine to be back in full production in the second quarter of 2008;
- Electricity supply constraints experienced in January and February and the associated ramp up period when supply resumed. The ongoing impact of the constrained electricity supply is expected to continue to have some impact on production and expansion projects throughout 2008. The full extent of this impact cannot be estimated with reasonable accuracy at present;
- Higher than planned mining from the lower grade North pit of the Mogalakwena mine;
- The suspension of operations to rehabilitate shaft steelwork at the Turffontein Shaft of Rustenburg Section. The rehabilitation work on the Shaft was completed ahead of schedule with first production delivered in March 2008.
- Contract labour related work stoppages at Rustenburg Section, Kroondal and Marikana over a 5 day period during the quarter
The Kroondal concentrate off-take agreement with Impala was completed, as expected, in the first quarter of 2008, resulting in increased concentrate ounces delivered to the smelters.
Repair work at the Polokwane Smelter, as a result of the minor slag run-out, has been completed and normal smelting operations have commenced. Due to Anglo Platinum’s excess smelting and refining capacity, the shut down and repairs required on the smelter are unlikely to impact on 2008 refined platinum production, despite the increase in pipeline stocks in the first quarter of 2008.
Taking into consideration the factors mentioned above, and the increase in pipeline stocks as a result of the Polokwane and Eskom outages, refined platinum production decreased by 24% to 428,600 ounces, compared to the first quarter of 2007.
Resolution of the main factors which affected production in the first quarter, other than the uncertainty of constrained electricity supply, is likely to result in an increase in production over the remainder of the year. Accordingly, Anglo Platinum’s production forecast for 2008 remains 2.4 million ounces of refined platinum.
During the quarter Anglo Platinum concluded re-negotiating the terms of its rhodium sales contracts that impact the portion of sales being made at prices significantly below the spot price.
As a result of the revised contract terms, the specific details of which are subject to contractual confidentiality, the price to be received by Anglo Platinum will change during 2008 and 2009. Should the current spot price of rhodium of $9,000 per ounce, the current rand / US$ exchange rate of 7.80 and rhodium production at the 2007 level of approximately 330,000 ounces remain constant for the remainder of 2008 and 2009 the impact of the contract re-negotiations will result in an increase in Anglo Platinum’s earnings of approximately R1.7 billion in 2008 and R3.0 billion in 2009 (earnings impact examples unaudited).
Project pipeline
Anglo Platinum remains confident of continued robust demand for platinum and is continuing with its expansion programme. The rate of expansion is reviewed on an ongoing basis against Anglo Platinum’s growth strategy. As part of this strategy, Anglo Platinum is focused on increasing production and optimising the value of its current operations.
In the first quarter of 2008 the Anglo Platinum Board approved the R7.1 billion expansion of the Twickenham mine to expand current operations on the UG2 reef horizon. The investment will see the mine, in South Africa's Limpopo province, increase production to 250,000 tonnes per month generating 180,000 ounces of refined platinum a year from 2016. The Twickenham project is an integral part of Anglo Platinum's Eastern Limb (of the Bushveld complex) expansion plans. The project will create 5,100 jobs, and most of the new employees will be recruited from the local community and trained at the R283 million Mining Training Centre being established at Twickenham.
In addition to Twickenham, projects in execution that will increase refined platinum production capacity include Mogalakwena North and Amandelbult East Upper UG2.
Johannesburg, South Africa
29 April 2008
For further information, please contact
Trevor Raymond +27 (0) 11 373-6462, +27 (0) 82 654 8467
Complete report including "Selected major growth and replacement projects" and the "Consolidated production statistics" charts
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