Factors contributing to the higher earnings were 15% increase in the US dollar realised price on the basket of metals sold and a 13% increase in platinum sales volumes. This was in part offset by a 9% strengthening in the average rand / dollar exchange rate.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Neville Nicolau said: “We are pleased with the strong financial performance we have seen in the first six months of the year, due primarily to a robust recovery in the basket price since the first half of last year. The increase in platinum sales volumes amid operational challenges reflects positively on our operational flexibility. We are especially pleased to announce that our strong financial performance, together with a positive outlook on the market, has led to the declaration of an interim dividend of R1.3 billion or R5.00 per share.

Sadly, eight of our employees lost their lives during the period. We extend our sincere condolences to their families, friends and colleagues. We have had 33 safety stoppages in the first half of 2011 compared to 17 in the first half of 2010, which was in line with the rest of the industry. We are continuing to work with Government and Labour towards zero harm.”

Refined platinum production increased by 17% to 1.17 million ounces in the first half of 2011 compared to the same period in 2010.

We maintain the view that the platinum market will remain in balance in 2011. The continued recovery in the autocatalyst and industrial segments and the sustained strength of the jewellery segment, particularly in China, is expected to be met by increases in production.

CEO Neville Nicolau said: “The average US dollar price achieved for platinum in the first six months is robust given the unexpected negative effect the Japanese earthquake and tsunami had on the market and the substantial reduction in the net long positions for platinum investment. We continue to believe that there is strong demand and investor interest to support the market.

Three years ago we embarked on a journey to reposition the company. Our plans included actions to improve on safety, to improve the reliability and predictability of production and to move our operations down the cost curve. Our lost time injury frequency rate declined by 32% to 1.33 in the first half of 2011 compared to 1.96 in the first half of 2008. Fatalities decreased by 68% from 25 in 2007 to 8 in the first half of 2011. We have made good progress towards zero harm despite the challenges experienced during the first half of 2011. We have met our production volume target in the last three years and despite mining significantly more UG2 reef, we have not had smelter accidents over the same period. This indicates that our production has been more predictable and reliable.

We will continue to manage costs as a priority by improving productivity, increasing efficiency and managing the supply chain and procurement costs. Our restructuring plan continues with the separation of Union mine into two separate mines to improve management’s efficiency and focus on costs and productivity.

We have maintained the refined production and sales volume target for 2011 at 2.6 million ounces as we expect to deliver a strong operational performance in the second half of 2011. We believe the expected increase in production volume and the remedial actions implemented to improve our safety performance and labour productivity will lower our unit cost in the second half of the year to around R12,000 per equivalent refined platinum ounce. We therefore revise our unit cost target for 2011 to between R12,400 and R12,600 per equivalent refined platinum ounce. We expect labour productivity to improve from 5.9m2 achieved in the first half of 2011 to our original target of 7.3m2 during the second half of the year bringing the average for full year 2011 to 6.6m2.

Our safety improvement plan will ensure that we continue to demonstrate improvements on our journey to zero harm.”